Monday, April 26, 2010

Cottage Cheese and Garage Wall Border Clean up

We have had a rainy couple of days with 2 inches falling. It is pretty cool too so not much has been going on outside besides the minimal chores for the farm.

I finished up the cottage cheese this morning with only one small disaster which didn't affect the finished product. I had left the milk overnight in the fridge so I could skim off the cream so decided I would bring it back to room temperature before adding my l cup of buttermilk to quicken the clabber process........way too much later, the milk was almost at the boil point and some had stuck to the bottom of the pan. I let it cool way down, added the buttermilk and let sit overnight.

I ended up with 1 lb. 12.6 oz. of cottage cheese from l gallon of milk with lots of whey left. I will be trying biscuits at noon with just whey instead of either milk or buttermilk. I will let you know how that turns out....

From Food

I plan to show the good, the bad, and the ugly of my life on the farm. I have shown the very bad (calf loss to predator), and now the ugly. I consider everything in between the good.

I have been working on the Garage Wall Border where the weeds, in particular some kind of alien grass (Brome?), has invaded. The first two thirds went pretty quickly and looks like this:


and this is the end of the bed with a tree sapling and other weeds.
I won't do much until the Spiced Custard iris bloom, the dead looking stuff is Russian Sage that hasn't been pruned...yet.

but here is the really bad stuff, the area where this grass is, It spreads with runners like Bermuda but doesn't pull up so easily. I will try it after these rains and see. If not, I am resorting to herbicide.



There is really nothing here that is critical to save unless maybe the daylily. I hate the globe thistle and will be happy to see it go. The yarrow I have in other places and can easily be replaced.

The wind is picking up and it is very overcast....possibly more rain in our future.

3 comments:

  1. Your header picture looks like you're about to get rain with those heavy looking gray clouds. We've had thunderstorms since last night. Right now there is a lull. Tomorrow should be sunny and warm once again.

    I think it is so wonderful that you make your own cottage cheese from your own cows' milk.

    Weeds are AWFUL! I hope your weeding goes smoother after the ground has been soaked.

    Have a great week ~ FlowerLady

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  2. I had to laugh about you forgetting the milk was warming up. I imagine it wasn't funny at the time, though. Well, you were able to go ahead and make that cottage cheese. That's good.

    I don't know what that grass is, but I have some I have to keep after in my veggie garden. It seems to be thicker this year.

    I like globe thistle, but have too much now, so am not letting the seedlings grow. Someone recently wrote a post asking whether we grow flowers we don't like. It may have been Carol, from May Dreams Garden. I just saw the title or first line, and didn't make it to the post. I'll have to check that out. I have a blanket flower I don't like. My husband likes them, but would probably not notice if I dug this one out. He's not a gardener, and we already have a bunch of plants because he likes them, even though he doesn't tend to them.

    I have shown the less pretty parts of my gardens, too.

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  3. Sue, I have blanket flower and love it. I plan to move a very dark red daylily next to it. I see just one survived this year. I probably should dig it up and move it.

    I don't think my husband even sees the flowers a round him!

    He has been good lately about bringing me in large rocks that he knows I like when he finds them in the fields. I am trying to edge a bed near the house.

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