TexasMadness
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Registered: 03-2007
Location: Austin, Texas
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Big day in the Cheese Kitchen!
I spent the entire weekend at the farm processing the overabundance of food we have right now. It was a blast, but I probably sweated a gallon a day!
First, I made lots of cheeses! Each week, we have almost 20 gallons to "deal with" so I set about doing such.
I made a four gallon batch of Gouda using vegetable rennet. Our cheeses have been having rather low yields and it was suggested to me to use calf rennet. So I followed the exact same recipe the next day with calf rennet. I don't have the final weights of the cheeses yet, but I'm interested to see if there is a big difference. Our vegetarian CSA members would like us to stay with the vegetarian stuff though!
I made 4 gallons of chevre, using the official chevre culture. Typically, any soft goat cheese can be called chevre, but there is a specific culture. Then I made 4 gallons of my favorite recipe of soft cheese and compared the two. I like the 'regular' kind better - and it's cheaper since you don't have to buy the culture every time!
And I attempted to make 2 gallons of cottage cheese. This is my 6th attempt. The first 4 used all different recipes and the first 3 failed, with the 4th yielding the best cottage cheese I've ever eaten. Unfortunately, attempt 5 and 6 were both using the successful recipes, but those failed too! However, "failed" cottage cheese just means that you don't have distinct little lumps of curd. Instead, it's the consistency of cream cheese. Still delicious, but somehow you just don't feel right eating it with a spoon, so it becomes cracker spread.
Then I set about dealing with the over production of veggies from the CSA. We just started our summer season with the Summer Solstice and we didn't have as many sign ups as we had planned on! So I made lots of preserves for the people that come to the farm to volunteer to take something home with them.
With 20 pounds of eggplant:
Pickled Eggplant...er, this might be horrible. It's ready in just a week, so I'll taste it and let you guys know how it is!
Eggplant Jerky - the same stuff I've made before and posted here
With 20 pounds of tomatoes:
Sundried cherry tomatoes
Canned Salsa - it's really good!
With 10 pounds of Cucumbers:
"Tongue Pickles" - they are sliced 'the wrong way' so they look like big tongues!
With 8 pounds of Zucchini:
Bread and Butter Pickles - I had never had these before...they are my new favorite food! They aren't even done yet, but I tasted a piece before canning. Wow, I love them!
And next week there will probably be even more things for me to process. I'm still experimenting with recipes though and it's hard with pickles since you have to wait 3 weeks to know if they are good or not!
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6/29/2009, 8:16 pm
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PerpetuallyCurious
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Registered: 12-2008
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Re: Big day in the Cheese Kitchen!
Wow, I'm tired just reading that (a bit hungry too).
Glad y'all are having such a great harvest!
Bread and butter pickels are the best 
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6/29/2009, 9:15 pm
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Saijen SilverWolf
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Registered: 10-2004
Location: Upper North East Tennessee
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Re: Big day in the Cheese Kitchen!
WOW...busy lady there! The cheeses sound soo good!
The zuchinni pickles you did, I usually do with zuchinni and yellow summer squash, with onions added in. I love those!!
--- Blessed Be,
~*~ Saijen ~*~
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7/1/2009, 3:22 am
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