Early mornings and spring harvest

Goat Milk Camembert by Goat Lady Dairy

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

In the cheese room at 6:00 am this morning. Steve is teaching me how to pasteurize. He walks me through everything. Sanitizing the equipment is very important. Everything must be clean and free of potential pathogens. The milk is stored in a refrigerated bulk tank. We empty the milk into the pasteurizer and begin to heat it to 145 degrees. The recorder on the wall gradually begins to move as the milk temperature rises. Everything seems to be working well. We go out and eat breakfast. The phone rings at 6:50am. Carrie Carrie has a family medical issue and won't be in until later. Steve takes the news and begins to think out loud.

Instead of following the milk from pasteurizing to the making of camembert, I must prepare a big wholesale order that's being picked up at 1:00. I've got to make several batches of fromage as well as wrap 65 chevre logs. The order must be separated into several trays for delivery to several restaurants. Little Carrie shows up just in time to follow my lead. I organized the order and whipped up several batches of fresh chevre. We finished the fromage order and put the tubs into the walk-in refrigerator. It was then that we discovered that Carrie Carrie had been busy yesterday afternoon. She had also made the same cheese, minus the boursin. Argh! I called Steve over and showed him our duplicate cheese.

Not to worry! We'll just freeze it and sell it to The Grateful Bread bakery. Looks like Steve didn't hear Carrie Carrie when she told him what she prepared yesterday.

Little Carrie and I wrapped countless chevre logs and finished the order by noon. Carrie Carrie showed up just as we were completing the order. She was happy I was able to step in and help. She just laughed when I showed her the multiple containers of fromage. We finished tubbing fromage after lunch. I felt proud that I was able to step into the breach and get the job done. I'm getting more confident as the days go on. I really think I can do this thing. I can make cheese. I can make my own cheese.

Supper: I harvested some asparagus from the garden. The red chard looked pretty good, so I cut some of those leaves too. A few minutes later they were cooking in a pan with onions, chicken broth, lemon juice, salt and pepper. I hadn't had my daily ration of pork, so I added some bacon for flavor. Just the thing for Passover! My greens were amazing. It doesn't get much fresher than that.

Goats like supper, too!