The Maternity Ward is open once again

We are waiting on two girls to give birth. Osnat is due on the 12th of September. She will be 153 days on that date. Goat gestation is 150 days, so I am guessing that it will be anytime soon.

She is big and I am trying not to duck outside every half hour to check her bottom for a show. It is only day 148 after all. Poor thing probably thinks my owner is obsessed or possessed or both. Let’s face it. I am just a crazy old goat lady who loves her animals.

I cannot wait for the babies to be born and am looking forward to what will be popping out shortly, despite my anxiety and grief at not knowing where we are going to be going despite searching for a suitable abode since May this year. I am literally exhausted and need to find a place within 31 days from today or before so we can move in and I need to find it no more than half an hour from Labertouche Primary School. I must find a place and raise money to move. It has been the most stressful year out so far and I can see it is going to get a lot more stressful.

I had the most horrendous experience in Queensland seeing my mother and receiving abuse upon abuse from my  SIL in Queensland along with my brother and his children for no good reason, except that she has a problem and wants to give it to me. Funny that you would solve your problems by giving others problems because you are in a spiteful and out of sorts mood. Let’s not go there.

We are trying to find a home and finance for myself, my son and our goats and two cats. The goat population is about to explode, but they are useful little critters. They give milk and they give meat from the boys we cannot keep as bucks. Anyway this is my first post back and I do want to write a post on the importance of raw milk over pasteurised milk and give a few links on it.

Now some pics to enjoy.

Home-made Goats’ Milk Cheese – A quick recipe

B’H

Some of the best things in life, you do yourself. Goat’s milk cheese is no exception. When you buy cheese from the supermarket, you do not know what chemicals to preserve, flavour and colour the product are contained within it. Recently I bought butter in the supermarket and the use by date is 1.01.15 and that is for butter imported from Denmark and bought in Australia in October 2014. When was it made? I make my own butter and it tastes pure and fresh. I would only keep it for two to three weeks, unsalted, of course. However it is so delicious that it only lasts a week to ten days in our house.
Western Star Unsalted butter in the supermarket today, 23/10/14 has a best before the 04/03/15. Now I do not want to scare you, but look at the failing health of many people today and the rise of cancer and other illnesses and look at what we are eating.
I try to go fresh and natural food as well as Kosher at all times. Drink lots of water and use herbs and detoxifying foods.
My cheese recipe is very simple and you get a fresh natural food that has a clean taste and is good for you.

Ingredients
2 to 3 litres of fresh goat’s milk
A 1/2 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice
Several tablespoons of vinegar if required
Salt to taste
Fresh Herbs to flavour

Method
You take the two to three litres of fresh unpasteurised goat’s milk and you heat it to 68 – 70 C in a saucepan over another pan of water. Heating the milk over water is far better than a direct flame.
Heat the milk and when it has reached around the 70C mark you fold in some of the lemon juice. You will see the whey liquid start to separate from the milk solids after a few minutes. Do not allow the heat to go above 72 C if you can avoid it.
Add salt – usually around two or three tablespoons – a 1/3 of a cup. Stir in well.
Keep the heat low and stir in the lemon juice. Vinegar also works to process the milk solids into cheese, but I only add vinegar if it is Apple Cider Vinegar or a very good quality vinegar if the lemon juice is not quite sour enough. Sometimes with sweet lemons, you need to give them a bit of a kick along, and the vinegar does that.

Once you have the whey and milk solids separating, take the saucepan off the fire and allow the milk mixture to cool.
Once it has cooled sufficiently, run the whey off the solids using a sieve. Then place the milk solids in cheesecloth and allow to drip over a pan. It is good if you can hang the cheese cloth up in a cool place for an hour or so, to allow the rest of the fluids to drain off the cheese.
You will find that you have created a light creamy cheese that is pleasant to taste and fresh.

If you decide to use a herbal flavour, the time to put it in is just before you add the lemon juice and around the time you are adding the salt.
This cheese will keep for approximately six to eight weeks in the fridge. I made some before Pesach this year. I had made it about two weeks before Pesach and I had to sell my fridge contents along with everything else in the house eruv Pesach. I had mentally ticked off some items that I was sure I would be tossing out when I got back to my fridge. Anyway it was a month old when I got back to it and it was one of the best cheeses I have made. I had put ground coriander through it.
I will make some more cheese in the next few days and post some pics. I cannot find my old pics of homemade cheese. Sorry.
Bon apetit! Or Beitatavon!