Whole Goat's Milk Ricotta, only 15 minutes a-whey! (with this recipe)

Sorry, I couldn't help myself (so sooo punny!). Why the "whole" in the title? Ricotta is actually traditionally made from the whey left over after cheesemaking, hence the "ri" (re) "cotta" (cooked). You acidify the whey or wait until it has acidified naturally after sitting for a few hours at room temp (the cultures from your first batch of cheese are still working away in there!) and then heat until the remaining curd begins to precipitate from the whey. 

Any who - that's not what I made on this particular day. I wanted ricotta but unfortunately didn't have time to make any more than one cheese. Luckily, I'd been there before and knew just what to do.

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First Birth on the Farm - Janis' Calf (A Heifer, We Think)


As I was stringing up some new fencing for the cow's new paddock I peered into the trees and saw a little head poke out. I was pretty far away, so I thought it might just be Corrina's nose. Then I saw it stand up and do a gangly little walk out into the sunlight. What!? Is that a baby calf!? It was a bit surreal.

Sure enough Janis had her baby, just as expected, exactly 11 months after her last calf. That means she was bred about 45 days afterward. 

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Of Guineas and Guard Dogs

Almost two months ago I posted about the guinea egg mobile that we built and rolled out into the pastures. The purpose of the guinea egg mobile is for pest control, but eventually they'll also lay some might fine eggs. At the same time the egg mobile provides shade and shelter for the goats. The guineas are great foragers, so we feed them a nominal amount of feed in order to keep them coming back to the egg mobile, but other than that they’re on their own.


Guinea keets on their first day out
At first the guinea keets were still quite small (only 6 weeks old), so they remained in the coop, getting accustomed to home for another 3-4 weeks. We laid fresh hay on the floor of the coop and after about a week the keets would eat it and scratch it through the cracks. We would replace with new hay and the process repeats. It worked well, but we were really looking forward to having them out free-ranging.

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