Making Squeaky Cheese Curds

Have you tried cheese curds? They are delicious! They are easy to make, too.

To make cheese you need 2 gallons of milk. Raw milk will give you more cheese than pasteurized milk from the store. Pasteurized milk is easier and less expensive to get than raw milk. We have Echo, so I have plenty of unpasteurized milk! A gallon of milk weighs 8 pounds. Each gallon of milk gives between 1 and 1 1/2 pounds of cheese. What happened to the rest of the pounds? Read on and find out!

I also need some rennet, and some starter. Starter changes the milk slightly so it's able to turn into cheese. You can find out more information about what a starter does, and what it's made of here.

Rennet is used to make the milk turn into a curd, which is a little like jello. You can find out more about rennet here.

How to:
Slowly heat 2 gallons of milk to 96˚F over low heat.

Once the milk reaches the right temperature, add the starter culture. I'm using a C-201 thermophilic starter. That's a lot of big words for 1st grade.

The starter is in the small spoon. I add a 'dash' to 2 gallons of milk.

I mix the starter in and let the milk sit for about 20 minutes to 'ripen.'
That means the starter has done it's job and it's time to add the rennet.

I add 1/2 teaspoon rennet mixed into 2 Tablespoons of cool, filtered water.

Once the rennet is added, I cover the container with a camp chef cover that
keeps the milk mixture nice and warm.

It's time to wait again. Leave the milk undisturbed, that means don't move it, don't touch it, don't check it. It needs to rest for 30 minutes. I usually clean the kitchen or vacuum or find something else useful to do while I'm waiting for the curd to form.



After I cut the curd, I mix the curds for 5 minutes.

Then I have to slooooowwwwly raise the temperature of the curds to 116˚F by turning on the stove very low.
This takes about 30 minutes, and I need to keep stirring it.

Can you see a difference in the curds (the white chunks) between the first picture and the last picture?
Heating the curds makes the whey (the clear, yellow-ish liquid) come out of the curds. All cheese is made from curds.

Next I need to separate the curds from the whey. I'm making cheese, I need the curds, but not the whey.



About 12 pounds of whey went down the drain, that's about 1 1/2 gallons. (Remember I started with 2 gallons, each gallon weighs about 8 pounds.)

I have to wait about 30 minutes or more depending on how dry I want my curds. It takes a few hours to make cheese. I usually have a few 30 minute breaks to get useful things done.

Time to open the cloth!



Now our family gets to enjoy some fresh Squeaky Cheese Curds! They are delicious! We like them better than the orange Squeaky Cheese from the store. My Squeaky Cheese isn't orange because I didn't add any food coloring to it. If you want your cheese to be orange you need to add a special food coloring.

I hope you have a chance to try this recipe at home!

Lots of Milk!

Welcome back!

I hope you had a wonderful week! We did a lot of work around here. We always work hard, but it seems that when fall is on the way we do more work. We try to get the stalls cleaned, the chicken pen cleaned, and garbage picked up out of the pasture and other areas. We get new animals, and sell the ones we don't want anymore. We make sure all the animals have good shelter for the winter, and that the fences are in good repair.

Today I thought I would show you a little bit more about Echo and what the milker looks like when it's milking her.

Often I'm the only one out in the barn milking. Bryon and Matt are out and about doing other chores so I'm the one that has to get the milker on all by myself.

There are four inflations (those are the silver tubes) that need to be put on all four of Echo's teats.

This is what it looks like when the pulsator is going.
That's a lot of milk that's being sucked into the tank!

While the milk machine is milking Echo I hand milk the goats. The milker milks out four gallons of milk from Echo a little bit faster than I can milk one gallon of milk from Matt's goat, Annie.

When I'm done I filter the milk and put it in gallon jugs, cool it a little bit in ice water, and then put it in the refrigerator.

How many gallons of milk are in the refrigerator today? 

Are they all from one day? 

Somedays I don't put the milk in the refrigerator. Either Bryon or I separate the cream from the milk. 

The milk goes into the big container in the sink.
The cream goes into the jar.
I love to watch the milk and cream in the two plastic pieces
near the middle of the milker.

I got almost 2 quarts of cream from 4 1/2 gallons of milk.
The jar in the middle is a quart jar.
The jars on either side are pint jars.
Two pint jars hold the same amount as one quart jar.
That may not seem like a lot of cream but our cream is
so thick that you have to scoop it out with a spoon or a knife!
It doesn't pour out of a container like the cream from the store.

Last week I showed you the squeaky cheese that Quin and I made. Your teacher said you read a poem last week about Little Miss Muffet. I thought you would like to see what curds and whey look like together.

The curds are in the spoon.
The whey is the liquid in the pan.
I give some of the whey to the chickens.
Most of the whey goes on the garden.
Whey makes good fertilizer and helps the garden grow!

Quin loves curds! Whenever we make cheese he always
wants a little bowl filled with soft curds to eat.

We got a new animal this week! His name is Sully.

Sully is 8 years old.
That's older than most First Graders!
He's a good cat.
He loves living on a farm.

Can you tell this is his favorite chair?
He doesn't like the dogs very much so he finds a spot in the house
where he can sit and relax with out the dogs bothering him.

Maybe you are wondering why we didn't get a kitten. We love kittens, but there are so many older cats that need a home. Sully's old owner was moving to another place that doesn't allow cats so he wanted to find a new home for his furry friend. He thought Sully would love living on a farm instead of living in an apartment. 

Do you think Sully looks happy?

If you have to write a story, maybe you can write a story about Sully! Or about any of the other animals on the farm! 

If you write a story about the farm I would love to read it!

Have a great week filled with learning!

The Hay Shelter Is Up!

Welcome back!

I hope you had a wonderful week and learned a lot of new things.

We've been busy getting ready for winter on the farm. That means we need to get a lot of hay! We needed a new place to keep the hay dry.

The frame has been up since last fall, but we haven't had time to get the rest of it finished.

We used clips to hold the back of the shelter on.

Matt is finishing the 'earth anchors.'
Earth anchors are a way to hold the metal frame from blowing away.
The white tarp at the bottom of the photo is the roof and sides of the shelter.

We got the tarp on. It took all four of us to pull it over the top of the frame.
After we got the tarp over we clipped both ends
and used straps to hold the sides to the frame.

Here comes the hay!
We use a tractor to lift those big bales and put them where we store them.

We have four big bales inside the barn.

Two bales are in. You can see how long the shelter is.

There are 14 bales of hay in the shelter.
We covered the end with a tarp so they hay stays dry.

How many bales of hay did we get for the animals?

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We made cheese this week, too!

Quin is cutting the curd for me. It's one of his favorite jobs.

We made Squeaky Cheese!
Yummy!

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We have turkeys on our farm, too!
The big, brown one on the left is a Tom Turkey.
A Tom is a boy turkey.
The two turkeys on the right are hens.
Girl turkeys are called hens, just like girl chickens.

Do you see the chicken in the photo?
That chicken thinks she's a turkey because one of the hen turkeys 

sat on some chicken eggs.

That chicken is the one that hatched! 

Do you see the small chickens on the left?
They were hatched out of their eggs on August 11. They are about 5 weeks old.

The chicks still sleep with their mother hens to stay safe and warm at night.

Sometimes the chicks are hard to see when the mother hen is keeping them warm!

This his our crazy hen. She likes people.
She came to visit me while I was sitting on the patio.

We also have one duck.
She lays a lot of eggs in the spring.
Chickens lay eggs almost all year.
Most ducks only lay eggs in the spring.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a wonderful week!

If you have any questions, please write me a note or leave your question in the comments below.

Some Visitors and Some Cheese

Welcome back!

Do you know what happens when you live on a farm and get sick?

You still have to do the chores! Even if you feel like you can't get out of bed!

That's what happened to Matt and I this week. I was sick one day and he helped so much with all the chores so I could rest. I still was out in the barn but I wasn't strong enough to get everything done that I usually do. Tim helped by doing some of the inside chores that needed to get done. Matt got sick the next day so I did all the chores that he usually does.

The next time your mom or dad gets sick I hope that you help out with the chores at your house. I am so grateful when I get help!

It has been cold and rainy lately.
Stumpy found a nice place to sit in the barn so he can stay warm and dry.
It's so fun to come out in the morning and see this cute calf!

*    *     *     *     *     *

We had a neighborhood preschool visit us this week! The children and the parents were very well behaved. They listened closely, asked good questions, and were kind to the animals.

Echo loves the attention from the visitors.

Visiting the bucks (boy goats).

Feeding Clover.

This is my favorite picture of the visitors!
Echo loved them because they were all so kind!

*    *     *     *     *     *

This week I made cheese, too. Echo gives us a lot of milk! Thank you so much for saving your containers for me! 

I made cottage cheese.

I also made some Gouda. 

Gouda starts as curds, like cottage cheese.

Then it gets pressed into a round mold.
A mold is something that makes a shape,
it's not the green stuff that grows on old bread.

After it is pressed it has to sit in salty water called brine for about 12 hours.

The next step is for it to dry in a special refrigerator.

Then we have to wait for almost 4 months before we can eat it!

We won't be eating this cheese until 24 July, Pioneer Day in Utah.

*    *     *     *     *     *

I've been trying to get a good photo or video of Echo, Stumpy, and the goat kids.
It's pretty hard to have the camera ready when they are ready!
The goat kids love Echo, and they love to play with Stumpy.
You can see in the photo that Echo doesn't mind the little kids at all. 
We love this cow!
*    *     *     *     *     *

This is the friendliest chicken on the farm.
She doesn't have a name, but if you can think of a good one, I'll name her.

People can pet her or pick her up and she doesn't mind at all. That's unusual for a chicken that is handicapped. They are usually scared of people!

She is handicapped because she is blind in one eye.
Something happened to this eye, we don't know what it was.
Her eye got an infection, then it went blind.
She still lays eggs, and I like her because she's so friendly.

*    *     *     *     *     *

I'm sorry to say that the turkey eggs didn't hatch. Maybe she will lay another clutch of eggs and try again.

This little hen is sitting on eggs!
She started on Wednesday, 27 April.
Chicken eggs hatch out in about 21 days.
We're hoping they hatch!

 

One of our friends had a 'broody hen' and she asked for eggs.

Her hen sat on the eggs and she was able to get a short video of one of the eggs hatching! I am so happy that she let me share it with you.

And here is another short video she got!

I'm lucky to have such nice friends!

Here are the two new chicks with their mama hen.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Friday Photos from the Farm #5

Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful week and learned a lot at school!

I had a fun week! I learned how to post videos for you to watch when you visit. Did you know adults like to learn new things, too! When you finish going to school, I hope you will keep learning for your whole life because it's so much fun to learn new things. Your brain is like a muscle, too. If you keep learning, your brain will stay healthy. You're teacher likes to learn new things, too!

Here are two videos that I took a few weeks ago. The first video shows the chicks following their mother. Chicks are smart because they follow their mother. They know that they might get hurt or lost if they don't follow her.

At the very beginning of the video the mother hen is looking around checking to make sure it is safe. Listen for the other sounds you hear, too! I hope you hear one of the goats in the background.

In the next video you will see the mother hen scratching in the dirt. She's looking for food for her chicks, and she's teaching them where to eat. Listen for the goat in the background. The loud one is Penny, the quiet one is Izzy. At the top of the video you can see Stew's black legs. Stew is our lamb. I'll post more about Stew another time.

What things are the same on the mother hen and the chicks?

What things are different?

Did you remember that I was going to show you how I make cheese? I thought so. Your teacher told me you are all smart and very good at remembering the things she teaches you.

Watch what happens to the milk as it changes from milk to cheese.

This is two gallons of milk. I have to heat it up until it is about 90 degrees. That's about as warm as a summer day.

 

This is called starter. There isn't very much. It's a little bit like dried yogurt.

This is rennet. It is a little bit like gelatin. It makes the milk firm.

After I add the starter and a little bit of rennet, I have to wait for a whole hour! After an hour the milk looks like soft jello.

I use the long knife to cut it into small pieces. Now it's called curds and whey. I heard you read all about Little Miss Muffett. I have to stir the pot and heat the curds and whey until everything in the pot gets a little bit warmer, about 95 degrees. 95 degrees feels like a hot summer day.

After a while, I have to drain the extra whey. This is what it looks like in the pot. Wow! Do you see how much less there is in the pot?

Two gallons of milk will make 2 pounds of cheese. Do you know what two pounds of butter look like? It's about the same size, but the cheese turns out a different shape.

Next I pour the curds into a special bag and put the bag in the white cylinder. There are weights that hang off the press on the right side, but you can't see them in the picture. The piece of wood presses down on the cheese inside the white cylinder. I press the cheese for about 6 hours to get more of the whey out, and to make the cheese firm.
6 hours is about the same amount of time you are in school for a regular day.

Yum! This is my cheese!

This kind of cheese is called Queso Fresco. We can eat it right away. Some kinds of cheese we eat as soon as it comes out of the press.

Some kinds of cheese we have to package and put away for a few months.

If I make Gouda I have to put it away for at least 3 months in a cool, moist place. That's called 'aging'. It makes the cheese taste wonderful!

Do you like cheese?

What is your favorite kind of cheese?

What color is your favorite kind of cheese?

Next week I'll show you what the barn looks like. Your teacher told me that you are learning about maps right now. I'll make a map of the barn so you can see which part of the barn each of the animals use. I'll show you where the food is stored for the animals, too.

Pay attention to your teacher as she teaches you about maps. That will make it much easier to understand what our barn looks like.

Would you send me a picture of what you are doing today?