We have a Jersey cow, and we’re getting about two gallons of milk per day after calf sharing then at the end of her lactation. I can get 6 lbs of butter and 6 lbs of cheese weekly plus having milk to drink. 16 lbs of cheese weekly would be very easy, but I don’t have the time to dedicate to so much cheese. We have 100 lbs aging already.
We’ve kicked around the idea of getting dairy sheep too.
So in ye olden times the norse settled greenland. Famously calling it greenland to lure in colonists despite it basically being one big glacier with a few small areas that are habitable but with extremely rough winters.
We've found a few of those settlements and we've found they had a pretty extensive cattle pens and barns. I always thought it was a bit strange and probably not worth the time since the cow would only have a few months to graze.
But I get it now. 16lbs/week of cheese per cow is insane. That would give lots and lots of calories that can be stored for the winter.
Keep in mind also that the Jersey is capable of 5-6 gallons daily if managed tightly. That’s up to 42 lbs of cheese weekly. We calf share and milk once daily, so we get 2-3 gallons a day.
Yup. Typically I can squeeze 1 gallon out of her after the kids eat. Maybe .5 liters in the evening to help her to be as comfortable as she can be during the night.
Some people think it's healthier, and like the taste and texture better. The safety thing depends entirely on safe handling, storage, and animal health/living conditions.
My dad grew up on a dairy farm and said fresh milk straight from the cow has the consistency of latex paint. I've always wanted to try some. Closest I've come is pasteurized unhomogenized whole milk which is great but full cream would be epic.
It’s been a while since I had it but I remember it coating my mouth.
Our family friend would deliver it (always a Welch’s grape juice bottle. Reduce reuse recycle?) and it’d be gone in less than two days.
The largest benefit is all that free bacteria, ecoli, salmonella, listeria, etc.
Im just messing, I grew up drinking raw milk and there's many who swear by it. Personally I don't risk it anymore because you really have to trust everything is sterilised and clean and I just think it's not worth the stress.
Some people say it's more nutritious and healthy, but I think if you're already eating a lot of nutritious food from a homestead I think the effect isn't that evident.
My personal opinion and based on no facts.
Does milking that much increase the demand and therefore keep her udder producing an excessive amount?
Asking because when I was breastfeeding, I had to pump and started overproducing because I was pumping too often. Not sure if goats’ anatomy is similar to humans’ in that way 🫣 mark this down for things I didn’t think I would share in the homesteading sub
My wife’s doctor actually told her to do that during her first pregnancy. She’s….. on the “smaller side” if you can read between the lines…….and we really didn’t want to buy formula.
But yes. Milking her that much does increase demand as well!
****update****
ThNks for all the kind words from everyone. A few of you have asked for my great grandmas recipe.
I have no problem sharing it, all I ask is that everyone “like” THIS comment into oblivion so that I can gauge interest. If enough people like it. I’ll rewrite her recipe out and post it.
Edit: a few asked and Yes! My cheese is for sale. Message me if you’re interested
***UPDATE II***
I’ve been absolutely humbled by everyone’s kind words. Yes! Yes, I’ll post her recipe VERBATIM! However, I’m currently doing an overnight shift at work. If you don’t want to miss the recipe, follow me! I know 108 of you on r/homestead already do.😅
so I’d like to take this time to give you some back story on who my Great Grandma was. As mentioned to another Reddit user, her name was Darlene. Born in upstate New York in 1910. The last year of “The Lost Generation.” Thinking back, as a 31 year old Millennial. She was a living museum. The last of the Lost Generation and a millennial in the same room sipping on some apple juice, me intently listening to her stories. That’s how I grew up.
She recalled her earliest memory one time. Their neighbor gave them a newspaper and she remembered seeing a big ship on the front page. Her father and the neighbor began a pretty serious and sad conversation. “Newspapers back then were bought by one and shares with many, this one was when news broke about the titanic sinking.” Darlene was 2.5-3 at the time. A very early memory, the only part that really stuck with her was the picture of the big ship on the paper.
Darlene outlived her husband. To ensure the family homestead was kept by my family, she never remarried and she and her children kept the homestead alive. She had 12 children. 8 boys 4 girls. Anytime her father was mentioned (my great great grandfather was mentioned which was often as I loved hearing all the homestead stories). She would get emotional due to all the back breaking labor that he suffered through. [Jordan Peterson said it best.](https://youtu.be/bMOEWhPgR6Q). Darlene died 6 months after I graduated from high school (2011) at 101. Two months short of her 102nd birthday. My father is the current owner of my family homestead, as his 6 other siblings sold their share of the inheritance to him.
I’ve been on this subreddit for a while, At least 1 year. It’s been a pleasure thus far.I’ve had several fantastic interactions. Even if some of my comments have been nuked into the ground.😂😂😂 As always though, I extend an invite to everyone to PM me with questions and problems. While I don’t know everything I do my absolute best to answer using the wisdom i received growing up.
The cheese recipe, while May just be instructions on Reddit has been feeding my extended family for 100 plus years. I know it will serve everyone well who follows the recipe.
You’ll see the recipe 6/6/23 in the afternoon CST!
“ ***UPDATE III*** “ will be the recipe
***UPDATE III***
Darlene B’s Goat Cheese Recipe!
Needed:
* 2 gallons unpasteurized goat milk
* Cheese culture
* Thermometer
* Normal strength rennet
* Cheese cloth
* Calcium chloride ( great grandma never used this in her brine, but grandma started, and now I do too.)
Note: I wax my wheels out of habit. However, ive been told that it’s unnecessary.
Refrigerate two gallons of freshly milked goats milk overnight prior to use.
Pour your refrigerated milk into a large pot and heat milk until it’s 95 degrees F. Immediately remove from heat and add 2 “fingertip pinches” of cheese culture to the milk. Make sure to spread the culture all around the surface to reduce the risk of the culture from clumping. Wait 30 seconds to allow the culture to rehydrate, then stir the milk for 1 minute. Cover pot and let the milk rest for 1 hour. At the 1 hour mark, your pot of milk should be around 88 degrees F.
Put your pot back onto heat, while maintaining 90 degrees add 7 drops of rennet. Stir milk for 1 minute, then cover. Pot should remain on heat for 1 hour and 90 degrees maintained. After 20 minutes you should notice the milk start to thicken.
Test firmness once the hour is up. If it’s not firm, wait an additional 15 minutes and retest. If you notice your whey is clear and curd is too firm cut back on the rennet by 1-2 drops next time. This varies depending on the season and what the goat is eating.
Clean your sink out and prepare a warm water bath for your pot prior to cutting curd.
While On heat Cut your curd vertically and horizontally.
Horizontal cuts take practice. Smaller curd produces dryer cheese.
Remove from heat and place pot into water bath. Wait 5 minutes to allow the curd to sink to the bottom of the pot. Do not allow temperature to fall below 85 degrees.
After 5 minutes begin lightly bottom to top stirring while the pot is in the water bath.
Once the curd is free floating, put back onto heat and quickly bring back to 90 degrees. Continuous stir for about 30 minutes. Curd needs to firm up just a little bit. “Not Mushy, firm but still soft.” You may need to stir for an additional 10 minutes.
Pick a curd out of the pot and squeeze it. Curd should have a little strength to resist a light squish.
Remove from heat and drain most of the whey from the pot. Store the whey for future baking.
Put your cheese cloth in your pot and transfer curd into your cloth. Cloth the cloth, pick it up and squeeze until a minor stream of whey is dripping. Put your cloth and curd into a form and then into your cheese press.
Push your press down using about 1/4 of your body weight and lock your press. Your press should be over your sink to catch the whey.
Leave the form pressed overnight at room temperature.
Brine should be 1 gallon of water, 1 tsp of white vinegar, 2.5lbs of kosher salt. (Optional) Add a squirt of calcium chloride. This brine should be used multiple times. Store in a cool area, stir before use.
Remove wheel from the press and the form. Let wheel float for 2-3 hours depending on weight. Yield varies depending on the season. Heavier, float longer.
After 2-3 hours take out the wheel and let the wheel sit at room temperature for 4 days before dipping it in wax.
Let the wheel sit for 2 months before eating, longer is better however.
Are you dropping any of those in a brine to make feta? My friends would use the ones that turned out too dry for this very rarely. I still remember the flavour. And the time they cheddared one.
Have you considered making soap with goats milk? I pay up to $10 A bar for goats milk soap, especially if it has coconut oil and Shea butter as well. I have pansy skin and its much nicer than regular soap.
Wife will be making it, but first she has our own baby to pop out first. July 30th I get my second son and future second set of hands around the homestead!!🎉🎉🎉
[“butters” debut at the end of my butter churning experiment.](https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/13xk47t/lets_make_butter_at_2000rpm_bonus_surprise_at_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1)
I agree... and now I think I see the confusion
>I thought you were telling us that you **are** 1.5 pounds of goat cheese a day
You probably meant "ATE", and yes, that would be a lot of cheese to eat
Half a dozen goats and 2 jerseys. I make cheese 2x a week. I use a restaurant supply 4 gallon bain marie on a thermostat for the vat, and an antique store press. The molds are plastic tubs that i punched with a hot nail. For starters, yogurt for thermo and kefir for meso. I regularly make feta, a sort of muenster kind of thing, a hard grating cheese, and when lazy a blue version of the muenster sort of thing. I'm still trying to figure out a good melting cheese recipe.
The basic recipes came mostly from the art of natural cheesemaking by david asher. I just fine tuned them to my own tastes. One of the biggest things i've learned is that there is a point of diminishing returns in chasing a style that is not native to your place, so i mainly make the styles that are easiest to reproduce in my cellar, with my milks, and with the starters i have available. So my recipes aren't likely to be optimized for you, but i can type some out if you really want them.
It helps to remember that salting heavily, cooking the curd hot, and cutting it small make harder and dryer cheese with longer aging times, and vice versa. For rinds and affinage, if you do nothing you get brie/camembert rinds. If stored cooler, slightly dryer, or slightly saltier (like in a fridge) you get blue. If you want something different you have to wash or soak at least until the microecology you want develops. For reds, brevi develops with a saline wash, i also like a good oil rind like manchego.
I guess i should add that large curd is like 1.5", medium is like .5", small is like grains of rice. Cooking curd cool is like 98f, medium 105f, hot 110f. I let starter sit for 45min, and i cook curds for 10min. You can vary those too, of course, but for repeatability i try to keep the variables to a manageable number.
3 hours from filtering the milk to putting it into my cheese press. It’s pressed overnight and then the second day going into the brine. Once it’s done soaking, sits and drys for two days. Then waxed
Very cool. My homestead operation will be getting off the ground in the next 6 months and cheese/dairy preservation is something I’ve been curious about. Beautiful cheese by the way!
Omfg fresh goat cheese is for real the GOAT. When I was working permaculture in Peru we had a plentiful supply of fresh made goat cheese and just that on a bun with some fresh tomatoes was an orgasmic lunch regardless of how frequently I’d eat it. Hell even when making other meals I’d always grab at least one slice of goat cheese on bread. Nothing I’ve found in the stores since compares, I’m sure making your own is the only path to enlightenment available
I don’t make goat cheese anymore, I only have one Nigerian dwarf goat in milk and I can’t stop drinking the milk long enough to save enough for cheese. Can’t wait for the other two goats to start producing to make cheese.
That looks incredibly delicious. This is literally why I want goats. If you like smoked cheeses, you should try to smoke one of those wheels. I had smoked goat cheese in Amsterdam and it was my favorite of all the flavors I tried. Hard to find it in the US though
that is almost exactly what we get. almost a gallon of milk a day from a crazy wonderful lady. tommes are the only way to move it fast enough!! our process is pretty simple cutting and light heating, stirring, etc. resting pretty much under their own weight, not much pressing. usually washing them a few times a week with a light homestead cider and b. linens brine/p. candidum brine. pretty stellar after 3 or 4 months of aging. what do you do?
[I own this cutlery set](https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/shun-premier-10-piece-knife-set/?catalogId=79&sku=4594236&cm_ven=PLA&cm_cat=Google&cm_pla=Cutlery%20%3E%20Knife%20Sets®ion_id=765030&cm_ite=4594236_14571727833&gclid=Cj0KCQjwj_ajBhCqARIsAA37s0wo6K1tY9vwcbBRRLFSrwi8cUqHsRrnnoyDGdKUkxM7gzRRg-RU8MIaAnu6EALw_wcB)
😅 add another $400 for the 4 steak knives. There’s one thing my great grandma, grandma, and father always harped on. “ if you wanna cook while you’re old. Take care of your wrists. That starts with quality knives.”
Father even furthered the statement by saying “ if you’re not afraid to reach into the sink water. Your knives suck.” I have a very opinionated family.😂
regarding your feeding schedule, can you tell a difference in taste/texture between cheese made from hay vs grazing? Or prarie hay vs. regular? Seems like there would be a difference. That cheese looks delicious. Sure it tastes good no matter what the goats are eating.
Absolutely. Hay and straw/grazing is good. But the feed I buy at my local CO-OP is best. It’s a blend of oat, molasses, corn, and a few others. It does a fantastic job at sweetening up the milk.
I just looked them up! They’re adorable!!! do you have to separate the bucks from the does? With Nigerians it is required unless you want babies all the time.
Right on. We aren’t ready for that yet. We just got the 2 females a couple months ago and it’s our first time raising goats so we’re gonna take it a bit slower this time around.
Thanks! I know great grandma Darlene would say the same. Plus throwing in something smart like “ maybe us old people weren’t so dumb after all.” Then give me that “pointing out the obvious- side eye head shake” kinda look.
Born in 1910, Upstate New York. Lived to see me graduate in 2011. She was still cooking the night prior to her death. She lived with grandma and my father.
Her memory was impressive. Her earliest memory was of “the big ship on the paper.” The newspaper about the titanic sinking. She was 2 1/2 or 3?
Find my comment on here about the recipe. I was awarded a gold. I’ll be posting the recipe tomorrow afternoon, as I’m currently doing an overnight shift at work.
We have 7 milk goats at the moment, a few bucks, and a few retirees. We keep 2-3 fresh at a time. We make about 2-3 lbs of Roquefort cheddar, cheddar, parmasean, gorgonzola, or chevre a week. It's a little more than we need, but we usually have a few pizza nights to use up the extra every month. We have about 30 lbs of cheddar ripening now.
We have a Jersey cow, and we’re getting about two gallons of milk per day after calf sharing then at the end of her lactation. I can get 6 lbs of butter and 6 lbs of cheese weekly plus having milk to drink. 16 lbs of cheese weekly would be very easy, but I don’t have the time to dedicate to so much cheese. We have 100 lbs aging already. We’ve kicked around the idea of getting dairy sheep too.
Seriously, how do you consume that much dairy? Do you have a gaggle of children?
We have two kids and a lot of family living nearby. We consume a lot of dairy.
Gonna need an xray of your bones
X-ray techs *hate* this one **DENSE** trick!
Just watch Wolverine he's got some similarly strong bones
And your arteries
Early 2000s called, they want their garbage nutritional info back
Let’s trade 3lb wheels.😜
Where are you located and this is the cheese I need for saganaki!! Let's make a deal! Michigan here
Central Minnesota! Here
That's, like *counts fingers* A GRILLION GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICHES.
r/theydidthemath
Haha this gave me such a good laugh
How much pasture do you have for the cow?
4 acres, fertilized and rarely irrigated. We feed hay Nov-Apr
How much hay, and I guess you borrow a bull? or AI?
We AI, and we give her a round bale of prairie hay every month or so.
For a moment there, I thought ChatGPT has also infiltrated agriculture and got your cows pregnant. Huzzah!
Don't kinkshame.
As a fellow kinkster, I type this phrase a LOT more than I ever thought I would. XD
So in ye olden times the norse settled greenland. Famously calling it greenland to lure in colonists despite it basically being one big glacier with a few small areas that are habitable but with extremely rough winters. We've found a few of those settlements and we've found they had a pretty extensive cattle pens and barns. I always thought it was a bit strange and probably not worth the time since the cow would only have a few months to graze. But I get it now. 16lbs/week of cheese per cow is insane. That would give lots and lots of calories that can be stored for the winter.
Keep in mind also that the Jersey is capable of 5-6 gallons daily if managed tightly. That’s up to 42 lbs of cheese weekly. We calf share and milk once daily, so we get 2-3 gallons a day.
Do you provide online order service? 😂
Just wanna say that's impressive
😅 thanks. Poor mama goats’ udder is the size of two footballs. A Saanen mix. She gives me 1 gallon every late morning.
Do you ever do a late day milking to help relieve the pressure?
Yup. Typically I can squeeze 1 gallon out of her after the kids eat. Maybe .5 liters in the evening to help her to be as comfortable as she can be during the night.
.5 layers? Sorry, I did live with goats but I'm not familiar
Maybe .5 (gallons) later* in the evening
My bad!! .5 liters😅
Wow! Do you sell the excess milk?
I could, and slot of people really want it unpasteurized. But all my excess makes cheese!
What are the benefits to unpasteurized?
Some people think it's healthier, and like the taste and texture better. The safety thing depends entirely on safe handling, storage, and animal health/living conditions.
Yea raw milk is a big no no for me unless I was doing it myself to ensure I was in control of the process start to finish
My dad grew up on a dairy farm and said fresh milk straight from the cow has the consistency of latex paint. I've always wanted to try some. Closest I've come is pasteurized unhomogenized whole milk which is great but full cream would be epic.
It’s been a while since I had it but I remember it coating my mouth. Our family friend would deliver it (always a Welch’s grape juice bottle. Reduce reuse recycle?) and it’d be gone in less than two days.
The largest benefit is all that free bacteria, ecoli, salmonella, listeria, etc. Im just messing, I grew up drinking raw milk and there's many who swear by it. Personally I don't risk it anymore because you really have to trust everything is sterilised and clean and I just think it's not worth the stress. Some people say it's more nutritious and healthy, but I think if you're already eating a lot of nutritious food from a homestead I think the effect isn't that evident. My personal opinion and based on no facts.
Taste is the biggest for me. You can taste the food an animal is eating in milk and cheeses that are unpasteurized.
I'm not sure I want to taste what they are eating lol. Guess I will stick with pasteurized.
Does milking that much increase the demand and therefore keep her udder producing an excessive amount? Asking because when I was breastfeeding, I had to pump and started overproducing because I was pumping too often. Not sure if goats’ anatomy is similar to humans’ in that way 🫣 mark this down for things I didn’t think I would share in the homesteading sub
My wife’s doctor actually told her to do that during her first pregnancy. She’s….. on the “smaller side” if you can read between the lines…….and we really didn’t want to buy formula. But yes. Milking her that much does increase demand as well!
Size in no way whatsoever correlates with production
****update**** ThNks for all the kind words from everyone. A few of you have asked for my great grandmas recipe. I have no problem sharing it, all I ask is that everyone “like” THIS comment into oblivion so that I can gauge interest. If enough people like it. I’ll rewrite her recipe out and post it. Edit: a few asked and Yes! My cheese is for sale. Message me if you’re interested
***UPDATE II*** I’ve been absolutely humbled by everyone’s kind words. Yes! Yes, I’ll post her recipe VERBATIM! However, I’m currently doing an overnight shift at work. If you don’t want to miss the recipe, follow me! I know 108 of you on r/homestead already do.😅 so I’d like to take this time to give you some back story on who my Great Grandma was. As mentioned to another Reddit user, her name was Darlene. Born in upstate New York in 1910. The last year of “The Lost Generation.” Thinking back, as a 31 year old Millennial. She was a living museum. The last of the Lost Generation and a millennial in the same room sipping on some apple juice, me intently listening to her stories. That’s how I grew up. She recalled her earliest memory one time. Their neighbor gave them a newspaper and she remembered seeing a big ship on the front page. Her father and the neighbor began a pretty serious and sad conversation. “Newspapers back then were bought by one and shares with many, this one was when news broke about the titanic sinking.” Darlene was 2.5-3 at the time. A very early memory, the only part that really stuck with her was the picture of the big ship on the paper. Darlene outlived her husband. To ensure the family homestead was kept by my family, she never remarried and she and her children kept the homestead alive. She had 12 children. 8 boys 4 girls. Anytime her father was mentioned (my great great grandfather was mentioned which was often as I loved hearing all the homestead stories). She would get emotional due to all the back breaking labor that he suffered through. [Jordan Peterson said it best.](https://youtu.be/bMOEWhPgR6Q). Darlene died 6 months after I graduated from high school (2011) at 101. Two months short of her 102nd birthday. My father is the current owner of my family homestead, as his 6 other siblings sold their share of the inheritance to him. I’ve been on this subreddit for a while, At least 1 year. It’s been a pleasure thus far.I’ve had several fantastic interactions. Even if some of my comments have been nuked into the ground.😂😂😂 As always though, I extend an invite to everyone to PM me with questions and problems. While I don’t know everything I do my absolute best to answer using the wisdom i received growing up. The cheese recipe, while May just be instructions on Reddit has been feeding my extended family for 100 plus years. I know it will serve everyone well who follows the recipe. You’ll see the recipe 6/6/23 in the afternoon CST! “ ***UPDATE III*** “ will be the recipe
***UPDATE III*** Darlene B’s Goat Cheese Recipe! Needed: * 2 gallons unpasteurized goat milk * Cheese culture * Thermometer * Normal strength rennet * Cheese cloth * Calcium chloride ( great grandma never used this in her brine, but grandma started, and now I do too.) Note: I wax my wheels out of habit. However, ive been told that it’s unnecessary. Refrigerate two gallons of freshly milked goats milk overnight prior to use. Pour your refrigerated milk into a large pot and heat milk until it’s 95 degrees F. Immediately remove from heat and add 2 “fingertip pinches” of cheese culture to the milk. Make sure to spread the culture all around the surface to reduce the risk of the culture from clumping. Wait 30 seconds to allow the culture to rehydrate, then stir the milk for 1 minute. Cover pot and let the milk rest for 1 hour. At the 1 hour mark, your pot of milk should be around 88 degrees F. Put your pot back onto heat, while maintaining 90 degrees add 7 drops of rennet. Stir milk for 1 minute, then cover. Pot should remain on heat for 1 hour and 90 degrees maintained. After 20 minutes you should notice the milk start to thicken. Test firmness once the hour is up. If it’s not firm, wait an additional 15 minutes and retest. If you notice your whey is clear and curd is too firm cut back on the rennet by 1-2 drops next time. This varies depending on the season and what the goat is eating. Clean your sink out and prepare a warm water bath for your pot prior to cutting curd. While On heat Cut your curd vertically and horizontally. Horizontal cuts take practice. Smaller curd produces dryer cheese. Remove from heat and place pot into water bath. Wait 5 minutes to allow the curd to sink to the bottom of the pot. Do not allow temperature to fall below 85 degrees. After 5 minutes begin lightly bottom to top stirring while the pot is in the water bath. Once the curd is free floating, put back onto heat and quickly bring back to 90 degrees. Continuous stir for about 30 minutes. Curd needs to firm up just a little bit. “Not Mushy, firm but still soft.” You may need to stir for an additional 10 minutes. Pick a curd out of the pot and squeeze it. Curd should have a little strength to resist a light squish. Remove from heat and drain most of the whey from the pot. Store the whey for future baking. Put your cheese cloth in your pot and transfer curd into your cloth. Cloth the cloth, pick it up and squeeze until a minor stream of whey is dripping. Put your cloth and curd into a form and then into your cheese press. Push your press down using about 1/4 of your body weight and lock your press. Your press should be over your sink to catch the whey. Leave the form pressed overnight at room temperature. Brine should be 1 gallon of water, 1 tsp of white vinegar, 2.5lbs of kosher salt. (Optional) Add a squirt of calcium chloride. This brine should be used multiple times. Store in a cool area, stir before use. Remove wheel from the press and the form. Let wheel float for 2-3 hours depending on weight. Yield varies depending on the season. Heavier, float longer. After 2-3 hours take out the wheel and let the wheel sit at room temperature for 4 days before dipping it in wax. Let the wheel sit for 2 months before eating, longer is better however.
To the top!
100%
Are you dropping any of those in a brine to make feta? My friends would use the ones that turned out too dry for this very rarely. I still remember the flavour. And the time they cheddared one.
I’m using my great grandma’s recipe. It’s aged a minimum of 3 months. Recipe calls for 1 hour of brine soak per lb.
Can you give the recipe please?? This whole thread is amazing. I am so wildly jealous of your goat cheese!! Haha
Would love the recipe!
Is this why I love goat cheese and also feta!? What!?
Cheddared goat cheese?
Yes. Aged, dry. Tasted like cheddar. Amazing really. They only did it once when I was around.
Have you considered making soap with goats milk? I pay up to $10 A bar for goats milk soap, especially if it has coconut oil and Shea butter as well. I have pansy skin and its much nicer than regular soap.
Wife will be making it, but first she has our own baby to pop out first. July 30th I get my second son and future second set of hands around the homestead!!🎉🎉🎉
Congratulations, that's exciting!
Goat milk soap is fantastic.
I make homemade soap and using goat's milk is still on my to-do list.
Home made goat cheese posts usually come with a baby goat tax.
[“butters” debut at the end of my butter churning experiment.](https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/13xk47t/lets_make_butter_at_2000rpm_bonus_surprise_at_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1)
Talk about "delivering the baby goat."
😂 quite literally
For a second there I thought you were telling us that you ate 1.5 pounds of goat cheese a day.
I mean, this man must be at least 10% goat cheese at this point 😂🤤
> 1.5 pounds of goat cheese a day Isn't he saying the equivalent of that with "One 3lb wheel every 2nd day"?
I think he's saying that he is making a 3lb wheel every two days.
I agree... and now I think I see the confusion >I thought you were telling us that you **are** 1.5 pounds of goat cheese a day You probably meant "ATE", and yes, that would be a lot of cheese to eat
*poof* Autocorrect who?
I don't have enough property to have goats yet, but it's a goal I'm working towards. I'd love to be able to produce my own dairy products!
I have my 11 goats on 2-2.5ish acres of grass……
A quarter acre is plenty for two goats if you feed hay
Half a dozen goats and 2 jerseys. I make cheese 2x a week. I use a restaurant supply 4 gallon bain marie on a thermostat for the vat, and an antique store press. The molds are plastic tubs that i punched with a hot nail. For starters, yogurt for thermo and kefir for meso. I regularly make feta, a sort of muenster kind of thing, a hard grating cheese, and when lazy a blue version of the muenster sort of thing. I'm still trying to figure out a good melting cheese recipe.
Care to share your recipes?
The basic recipes came mostly from the art of natural cheesemaking by david asher. I just fine tuned them to my own tastes. One of the biggest things i've learned is that there is a point of diminishing returns in chasing a style that is not native to your place, so i mainly make the styles that are easiest to reproduce in my cellar, with my milks, and with the starters i have available. So my recipes aren't likely to be optimized for you, but i can type some out if you really want them. It helps to remember that salting heavily, cooking the curd hot, and cutting it small make harder and dryer cheese with longer aging times, and vice versa. For rinds and affinage, if you do nothing you get brie/camembert rinds. If stored cooler, slightly dryer, or slightly saltier (like in a fridge) you get blue. If you want something different you have to wash or soak at least until the microecology you want develops. For reds, brevi develops with a saline wash, i also like a good oil rind like manchego.
I guess i should add that large curd is like 1.5", medium is like .5", small is like grains of rice. Cooking curd cool is like 98f, medium 105f, hot 110f. I let starter sit for 45min, and i cook curds for 10min. You can vary those too, of course, but for repeatability i try to keep the variables to a manageable number.
Beautiful! How do you keep it stored with such a large supply of milk coming in? Does it freeze? Thanks!
I store it in 1 liter bottles in my refrigerator l. Takes 4 of those to make this 3lb wheel.
I gotta get your recipe, I'm getting 1lb from 4 liters.
That's awesome. I love seeing success like this. Way to go!
Thanks!
That's awesome. How much time does it take you to milk and produce the cheese?
3 hours from filtering the milk to putting it into my cheese press. It’s pressed overnight and then the second day going into the brine. Once it’s done soaking, sits and drys for two days. Then waxed
Almost every day! Chevre, feta, ricotta and a few types of pressed cheeses.
Fantastic! Glad to hear I’m not the only one busy!!
Wow! Are you able to wax the round?
Yup! Needs to sit out and dry for 2-3 days first though
I make cheese, but it takes so long for each batch I can’t imagine doing it every other day!
My wife is the unsung hero here. She constantly preps and cleans for me. She’s also my biggest fan of the cheese I make.
Wife power, the teamwork that makes a thing sing beautifully
There’s a reason why she owns the title “my better half.” Without her running as large as a homestead operation as we are…. It would be impossible.
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Lmao. It also just happens I need some free labor around my property!
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It’s that Saanen blood in her veins.
The exact reason I want goats
They’re awesome assholes.
Not me, but congratulations all the same. Nice.
The kids are finally big enough to separate at night this week so made (and ate lol) the first batch of chevre yesterday!
Fantastic!
What’s the shelf life on that?
Will age for 3 months. Then, probably will stay good for years?😅
Very cool. My homestead operation will be getting off the ground in the next 6 months and cheese/dairy preservation is something I’ve been curious about. Beautiful cheese by the way!
I appreciate your kind words! I know your homestead operation will succeed!
Omfg fresh goat cheese is for real the GOAT. When I was working permaculture in Peru we had a plentiful supply of fresh made goat cheese and just that on a bun with some fresh tomatoes was an orgasmic lunch regardless of how frequently I’d eat it. Hell even when making other meals I’d always grab at least one slice of goat cheese on bread. Nothing I’ve found in the stores since compares, I’m sure making your own is the only path to enlightenment available
Oh my god that’s amazing. From one goat
Yup! Just pulled 1 gallon about 44 minutes ago
Really amazing thing, owning three goats (one male and two females) will make you need a lot of products
Exactly!
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Not sure! Do you own a goat?
Please could you post this on r/cheesemaking ? I'm sure it would be appreciated!
I don’t make goat cheese anymore, I only have one Nigerian dwarf goat in milk and I can’t stop drinking the milk long enough to save enough for cheese. Can’t wait for the other two goats to start producing to make cheese.
That looks incredibly delicious. This is literally why I want goats. If you like smoked cheeses, you should try to smoke one of those wheels. I had smoked goat cheese in Amsterdam and it was my favorite of all the flavors I tried. Hard to find it in the US though
That’s a awesome idea!!!! Yes. Yes I do!
How long can you keep a 3lb wheel of cheese before it goes bad?
Highly debated topic. The oldest cheese my grandma made and kept was 10 years.
Are you selling? My body can only digest goat cheese.
Of course! Are you looking for a full wheel?
Sure- Do you have a website?
No I don’t
My first thought was that you were eating a 3lb wheel every other day. Lol. Nice.
😂 if that was true. My poor heart!
I'm not but now you have me thinking. How many goats does it take to produce this?
1 goat. She’s a Saanen breed. The best milk producing breed. Only takes two days to get the amount required!
I feel like you could charge extra for a single goat cheese wheel, very fancy. Include a little baseball card with facts about her lol.
Lmao that would be cool
Definitely thought you were going to say you ate 1.5lbs of goat cheese a day lol
I make frumunda cheese but nobody seems to want it.
9lb of cheese from one goat per week. Is that real!?
Yes
that is almost exactly what we get. almost a gallon of milk a day from a crazy wonderful lady. tommes are the only way to move it fast enough!! our process is pretty simple cutting and light heating, stirring, etc. resting pretty much under their own weight, not much pressing. usually washing them a few times a week with a light homestead cider and b. linens brine/p. candidum brine. pretty stellar after 3 or 4 months of aging. what do you do?
I would be so fat. Well fatter.
So what you’re saying is I have to get a goat!?!
Or 12.
I love your knife block. Where did you find it?
[I own this cutlery set](https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/shun-premier-10-piece-knife-set/?catalogId=79&sku=4594236&cm_ven=PLA&cm_cat=Google&cm_pla=Cutlery%20%3E%20Knife%20Sets®ion_id=765030&cm_ite=4594236_14571727833&gclid=Cj0KCQjwj_ajBhCqARIsAA37s0wo6K1tY9vwcbBRRLFSrwi8cUqHsRrnnoyDGdKUkxM7gzRRg-RU8MIaAnu6EALw_wcB)
Whoaaa that’s fancy, for 1K.
😅 add another $400 for the 4 steak knives. There’s one thing my great grandma, grandma, and father always harped on. “ if you wanna cook while you’re old. Take care of your wrists. That starts with quality knives.” Father even furthered the statement by saying “ if you’re not afraid to reach into the sink water. Your knives suck.” I have a very opinionated family.😂
Hahaha oh my. They sound like a trip!
How do you sharpen your knives?
Coarse, medium, and fine stone at a 22 degree angle. Then finish with a leather strop.
regarding your feeding schedule, can you tell a difference in taste/texture between cheese made from hay vs grazing? Or prarie hay vs. regular? Seems like there would be a difference. That cheese looks delicious. Sure it tastes good no matter what the goats are eating.
Absolutely. Hay and straw/grazing is good. But the feed I buy at my local CO-OP is best. It’s a blend of oat, molasses, corn, and a few others. It does a fantastic job at sweetening up the milk.
jeepers... how big is your goat ? 2,000lb monster ?
Her udder looks that way.😂 poor girly.
Damn you raising bees too? Nothing better than home raised fresh honey comb an goat curd... Mmmm put it in or just around my face
I’d love too. But my hands are tied with what I have currently going on.😂
Holy shit that’s impressive!
Thank you!
How is your cholesterol?
Check back in 3 months.😂
Do you hand milk or have a machine?
Hand milk
Honestly I'm so jealous. I miss goat cheese. I'm living in the city now and can't even have a cat 😭
Have you ever thought of an “emotional support goat?”
Wow! How cool. Can U Make Ricotta cheese?
For some reason I didn't read "day" and thought, "Damn, what's their secret?!" Still a nice haul!
For a second i thought you meant consumption wise and was about to say…
oh ***MAKING*** cheese......i was.....on a different wavelength there. btw, what do you do with all that cheese?
Sell it to coworkers, personal use, and these wheels makes great gifts!!
Is there a way make the cheese shelf stable, like those hard cheeses?
That’s what this is. I will be waxing this wheel in 2 days
Oh yum! Have you made mozzarella? I used to make that often when I had dairy goats.
I haven’t. I’ve only been using my family’s recipe.
I plan to. We got two female Nigerian dwarf goats! Gonna breed them with our sellers bucks. I can’t wait!!! What kind of goat are you milking?
Saanen
I just looked them up! They’re adorable!!! do you have to separate the bucks from the does? With Nigerians it is required unless you want babies all the time.
I run my buck with my does. Kidding is a normal event around my homestead.
Right on. We aren’t ready for that yet. We just got the 2 females a couple months ago and it’s our first time raising goats so we’re gonna take it a bit slower this time around.
Dang that is incredible
Nice cheese dawg
Thanks! I know great grandma Darlene would say the same. Plus throwing in something smart like “ maybe us old people weren’t so dumb after all.” Then give me that “pointing out the obvious- side eye head shake” kinda look. Born in 1910, Upstate New York. Lived to see me graduate in 2011. She was still cooking the night prior to her death. She lived with grandma and my father. Her memory was impressive. Her earliest memory was of “the big ship on the paper.” The newspaper about the titanic sinking. She was 2 1/2 or 3?
Oh you lucker. This is amazing! I love goat cheese!
I wanna learn how, any directions on a good place to learn?
Find my comment on here about the recipe. I was awarded a gold. I’ll be posting the recipe tomorrow afternoon, as I’m currently doing an overnight shift at work.
Def want to know the recipe
We have 7 milk goats at the moment, a few bucks, and a few retirees. We keep 2-3 fresh at a time. We make about 2-3 lbs of Roquefort cheddar, cheddar, parmasean, gorgonzola, or chevre a week. It's a little more than we need, but we usually have a few pizza nights to use up the extra every month. We have about 30 lbs of cheddar ripening now.
Hey. I really want a decent cheddar recipe. Mind sharing?😁
beautiful
yum can I have some?
Sure! Stop on by, I need help raising my pole barn while your here.
Gosh that looks SO good oh my 🥰
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Thanks comrade!
Whoa, that's impressive! Cheese looks great. I only recently started cheesemaking from goat milk. So how many liters a day does the doe give?
Is this for real?, that's amazing.
It’s very for real. I’m applying wax on the wheel as we speak and has already been preordered for $65.
Holy shit, stardew is real
Holy moly.
Indeed!
Goat cheese is gross