We are having a couple of nice days...today is supposed to be 50° so I will finish mulching the asparagus bed.
We restarted our trash pickup yesterday. We tried to stick to the recycling and burning method for one year. We finally gave up; they no longer take glass. It got so complicated with having to drive here and there. So, now all in one container again and our lives have become easier.
Milked yesterday and set 2 gallons to clabber, pullets 6 eggs, old Buff l. Life is good.
Gardening:
A few years ago, I got interested in heirloom gardening. There were several reasons behind it. First I love the idea of being self-sustaining (up to point....remember the trash thing) then I like the simple life style and I think we have lost a lot of flavor and nutrition with all the hybridizing. I know my grandmother didn't have to order or buy $$$$$ of garden seeds each year, she saved her own and you can't do that with hybrids.
I have ordered lots of seeds this year, but once I decide what we like and what grows well in our area, I should be able to save seeds. I saved three different varieties of pole bean seeds last fall: Cherokee Trail of Tears, Kentucky Wonder and Kwintus, all pole beans which is all I grow.
I ordered seed from a local supplier who has become quite famous and successful and has opened a store in Petaluma, Ca., Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Yesterday they sent their 2010 catalog and it is a thing of great beauty. It was like reading a fascinating garden book. The pictures were the best...in fact, the whole catalog is the best I have ever seen. I worry though about the cost and the direction they are taking....a bit like Silver Dollar City which I hate. It may just be an age thing for me, but they have festivals, a fake old time city, etc...........
I just have to order some open pollinated corn seed now and think I have found my source, a small family owned seed company in Tennessee, New Hope Seed Co. I hope we can get new ground ready totally away from the kitchen garden so the corn can be safe from cross pollination. I hope to have a grinder by next fall and use the corn for meal and the chickens. I remember Grandpa's corn crib and going out there to get a few ears to shell out for the chickens...lots of fun ahead.
First thing this morning will be processing the clabbered milk. I have already taken out a quart to keep for butter milk......thinking buttermilk biscuits and pancakes. The rest will be cottage cheese.
Just finished with the cheese making. I ended up with about 2 quarts or lbs, I didn't measure or weigh it and I should have. Drained the curds, salted and added about 1/4 cup heavy cream to it...I couldn't resist and had a dish.
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Now the part I don't like....cleaning the mess up in the kitchen.
YUM-O!
ReplyDeleteI remember my mom making cottage cheese when I was a little girl. After it clabbered she would put a big blob of it in the center of a tea towel, gather up the corners and pin them together on the clothesline with several clothespins. It would drip whey and the ducks would go stand under it and try to catch the drips!
Then she'd bring it in and mix it with cream, I think. Oh, my goodness, it was the best!