WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD, VOLUME 16 APRIL 17, 2015

freerepublic | April 17, 2015 | greeneyes

[greeneyes]

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks.

No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table(recipes)preserving, good living - there is no telling where it will go and... that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!

NOTE: This is a once a week ping list. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest are welcomed, so feel free to post them at any time.

[JRandomFreeper]

I do it like I do everything else. My way. LOL

For this batch, I'll put the gallon of whole milk in one of my stainless steel pots and let it come to temp with some kind of mesophilic bacteria. I may use a culture because I don't think I've got any spoiled milk or cultured buttermilk to start with.. Although I may use the cultured sour cream.

By the time I get back to it, it will be the next day, at room temp, and turning well.

I'll mix up the rennet and bring everything to the required temp. I'll have to look that up at the time. I forget numbers too fast.

When the cheese sets, I'll separate the curds and whey by hand, and save the whey for the dogs next door.

I'll salt and mill the curds to my specs (whatever that day) and then press it lightly to remove more whey.

After I remember to come back to it, I'll turn it and get rid of more moisture.

I'll probably mill and salt the curds one more time.

Then I'll wrap and press the cheese until it's pretty dry. Turning it when I remember.

At some point, when I'm happy, I'll turn it out of the press and shelve it. Probably in a warm fridge for that.

At least, without the kidz around, I've got a chance of keeping it on hand until it matures a few months later.

If I build a cold smoker, I may smoke the cheese, since I like smoked cheeses.

It's a pretty hap-hazard affair around here.

/johnny

[tubebender]

Thank you for these weekly updates ~

[MomwithHope]

Hey we have that in common, I made cheese from our fresh goats milk for 20+ years. Some summers I made cheese 5 days out of the week out of 2+ gallons of milk daily. Everything from cream cheese, fresh mozzarella, mozzarella for pizza, hard cheddar (I used my grandfathers cast iron sausage press with my cheese mold in it)and I once made a 2 lb block of parmesan that aged for 10 months. I used hubbys beeswax from his hive to coat it. I also made a lot of kefir - I really miss that the most. I still have 3 last packages of cream cheese in the freezer, made a cheesecake last week and it was still yummy! Not on my diet but I couldn’t let the cheese get any older.

[JRandomFreeper]

I don't do fiddly well, except for a few things. Show me the principles of soft cheeses, hard cheeses, melting cheeses, recooked (ricotta) cheeses and I'm good with improvising. If I really screw up, I'll figure it out. LOL

Go girl! No fear. It's just milk.

/johnny

[TEXOKIE]

I had heard you say that a couple years ago, Johnny, and I certainly thought of you when I heard this guy! It was cool to learn more details about how to do that!

[TEXOKIE]

Thanks for helping this get to the right place, greeneyes! Sorry for the mess up, but could not find the newer thread.

You are welcome for the reports.

Sounds as though you have the cover crops and organic soil amending nailed! I imagine much of this is actually old news to many of you!

[JRandomFreeper]

I'm sure that he knows much more about it than I do. He's got details. I've got big picture stuff with no details.

That's why I love it when you provide details.

/johnny

[TEXOKIE]

You are very welcome, tubebender!

[TEXOKIE]

:-D I understand that perfectly! I tend to be a detail person, and I’m also loving this specific information being made available.

There are quite a few more pages of notes on soil, but have been involved in some other projects and am trying to fit it all in when I can!

[greeneyes]

I love the smoked cheeses too. When I was just a young’un my friend’s brother worked at the local cheese plant - not a national brand - man did they ever have great cheese.

Anyway we would go round to the plant while he was on and he’d take some of the curds and put them in a paper lunch bag, and give it too us. We’d run off to the nearest shade tree and eat that stuff till we could pop.

It was warm and very salty stuff. Even to day I am sitting here wishing I could have a bag of that stuff. Those were some great times we had - today they would call us free range kids I guess.

[MomwithHope]

The best online source I could give you is cheesemaking.com. Run by an older lady Rikki, who was a younger lady when she started the website and wrote some books. I found one of her books at a garage sale and it was full of sticky notes with special cheese notes again 20+ years ago. It was great timing because I was just starting to make cheese. Her website is great now, they even have cheesemaking contests and a newsletter, I love reading about people all over the world who are cheesemakers. The culture I used most was the mesophilic, but I also used he thermophilic. At her website you can get culture packets for just about anything, even camembert, which I never made. If you can find junket tablets they are really handy for all the softer cheeses. I almost always used raw milk. For the harder cheeses I pasteurized it. I was dealing with mass quantities for a family of 3 and the softer cheeses froze easily. I went into one winter with 40 lbs of cheese in the chest freezer. The basics are pretty easy, super clean utensils, lower temp, softer curd, softer cheese. You can do some really nice softer cheeses with herbs stirred in at the end. The junket tablet box even has recipes. I better stop I could go on and on. LOL

[JRandomFreeper]

I don't use junket rennet at all. Those have all made too soft a curd, and around here, they are sold mainly for desserts, if you can find them.

I don't know exactly which website I use, but since I know what I want, I don't waste a bunch of time on ordering. Mainly, I get real rennet and cheesecloth. I may have used cheesemaking.com

You are correct. Absolutely clean is very, very important. I lost my cheese thermometer, so I use my beer thermometer.

I'm not too picky about the exact type, so I select hard or soft, and work the cheese that direction.

One year I did do bleu cheese type of cheese. It was the only one I actually used a recipe for, and bought stuff especially for.

/johnny

[MomwithHope]

The junket rennet is especially good for cottage cheese. I also had a cream separator so I had cream to add it was delicious. I also used the Hansen’s rennet. Just depended on what I was making. Bleu cheese is evil! But hubby likes it too. Never made it. I have these cheesecloths that I used year after year, found them at a fabric store and could never find any others. Like an acetate type mesh that I could just put through the washing machine time after time and they came out looking the same. Plus the fabric never stuck to the curd. Those I will never get rid of.

[JRandomFreeper]

I'm a single guy.

A trash can plays a large part of my laundry duties. ;)

/johnny

[MomwithHope]

Just for fun, this is pretty much what I have, it was my grandfathers and then my dad's. Mine is actually in a little better shape and I have all the attachments. Mine is oiled and wrapped in saran wrap out in the garage so I can't take any pictures right now. Enterprise was bought out by chop-rite who kept making them and they have a web site, you can still get parts. The cavity was perfect for my 2 lb. cheese mold and better yet the sausage vent at the bottom worked great for a whey drain. Grandpa just used it for sausage and Dad used it for sausage and also pressing his pie cherries from the tree in his backyard which he made wine out of. Best cherry wine I ever had. Sigh! I only used it for cheese for until last year we got 40 pounds of ground pork from our local slaughter house/meat market and we made a bunch of sausage. Figured I had to use it at least once for sausage. Sorry I don't know how to post a link but just copy and paste this in your browser. I have no connection to the seller, just found the picture -

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Cast-Iron-ENTERPRISE-8-Quart-Sausage-Stuffer-wine-cider-fruit-lard-press-/151658195152?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item234f8868d0

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

JRandomFreeper:" I'm a single guy.
A trash can plays a large part of my laundry duties. ;)"

That sounds like a military expression :
"Adapt..
Adjust..
Overcome !"

[JRandomFreeper]

I've seen/used one of those. They are great. You lucked out getting that one. Use it in good health.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

Some of my handywork.

It's an old favorite of mine that I haven't had for quite a while. I did the work up including the calories.

They are dates, filled with crushed Sunflower seeds.

Some stuff I can't eat easily without teeth. Like whole sunflower seeds. So I crush them.

I stuff the dates with the crushed sunflower seeds and roll the dates (sticky) in powdered sunflower seeds.

I've worked out 180 calories per serving. With a serving being about 6 dates. Obviously the servings of dates don't match the servings of sunflower seeds, so I had to do some fiddling to measure everything with scales and do all the math.

But there it is. They are ugly, but I like 'em.

/johnny

[TEXOKIE]

“Adapt..
Adjust..
Overcome !”

LOL!

[MomwithHope]

Those look yummy, plus I’m starting to like your china pattern. LOL