Some New Year's Resolutions are just plain
cheesy

When a recipe starts with "Milk the Cow," it's bound to be a blast.

As I look back over this year’s accomplishments of last years resolution list and what I should set as goals for next year, I have to chuckle.  As a girl growing up in a small town in Alberta, the 4^th daughter of a Grocer & Book-keeper, I would never have thought that my list of this years accomplishments would include learning to make cheese with a recipe that starts with “Milk the cow….”  But I have done it, mind you the cheese is still a work in progress and my technique needs a lot of polishing, but I can do a fairly good job of waxing the wheel.  To make cheese you start with the milk still warm from the cow.  You have to heat it for a certain amount of time at a certain temperature for each type or flavor of cheese.  Then you add rennet and a starter that is either mesophilic or thermophilic  and follow the directions carefully to achieve the cheese you intend to make.  I found a set of weights worked well for making a cheese press.  Waxing the cheese is done after the cheese has dried and formed a slight rind. It is easiest if you use a soup bowl and set it over a small pan of water to melt the special cheese wax, then roll the cheese like a wheel to coat the round edge, then after that has set so you can hold on to the cheese again, dip each of the flat sides.  I also found that cooling the cheese in the fridge between each step also helped to uniformly set the wax.  Wait a couple weeks, turning your cheese daily and then remove the wax and enjoy your hard cheese.

The next thing was learning to assemble, use with out covering the kitchen with milk, disassembling, washing and reassembling a cream separator, bought second hand so there is no manual.  Reports from friends all included horror stories of working with cream separators and the eventual cleaning of all the little screens, which I have come to realize were from the slanted viewpoint of childhood memories.  I have learned to utilize the half hour of washing-up by visiting with my Mother on speaker-phone, so she gets at least a ½ hour call at the same time almost every day from her favorite daughter.  This also makes the task of washing-up much less tedious.

I raised a calf with out any mishaps and a fine little Jersey heifer, Hazel, has turned out to be.  In an attempt to maintain my health, we have tried to eliminate as much commercially processed food as possible from our diet.  So we now milk 2 cows for our own consumption and to supplement our Dorper & Katahdin lambs as well as the Akbash & Border Collie puppies and fed some little piggies who now reside in our freezer.

I’ve learned to bake with real cream instead of butter or shortening and Pete’s butter is beyond compare with store bought imitations.

In trying to be self reliant I invented a spigot girdle for use with a milking machine where the milker has too small of hands to actually hold up the milking claw and attach the four spigots at the same time.  Apparently something only a woman can understand.  Thankfully our cows are very forgiving when I milk alone.

Next year’s goals are actually a continuation of what I didn’t accomplish this year….  First on the list is what I missed accomplishing this year: Learn to bake bread.  Others include labeling and maybe printing some of our pictures, writing actual letters to some older relatives and friends that are shut-ins,  learning to make ice cream from scratch with lots of variations and improving on my technique with that cheese making.  Or Maybe I should start a 4H for Seniors.

Lorna & Pete raise White Dorper & Katahdin Sheep and Border Collies at Wall 2 Wall Sheep Ranch in Poplarfield, MB   www.wall2wallsheep.com

As I look back over this year’s accomplishments of last years resolution list and what I should set as goals for next year, I have to chuckle.  As a girl growing up in a small town in Alberta, the 4^th daughter of a Grocer & Book-keeper, I would never have thought that my list of this years accomplishments would include learning to make cheese with a recipe that starts with “Milk the cow….”  But I have done it, mind you the cheese is still a work in progress and my technique needs a lot of polishing, but I can do a fairly good job of waxing the wheel. 

The next thing was learning to assemble, use with out covering the kitchen with milk, disassembling, washing and reassembling a cream separator, bought second hand so there is no manual.  Reports from friends all included horror stories of working with cream separators and the eventual cleaning of all the little screens, which I have come to realize were from the slanted viewpoint of childhood memories.  I have learned to utilize the half hour of washing-up by visiting with my Mother on speaker-phone, so she gets at least a ½ hour call at the same time almost every day from her favorite daughter.  This also makes the task of washing-up much less tedious.

I raised a calf with out any mishaps and a fine little Jersey heifer, Hazel, has turned out to be.  In an attempt to maintain my health, we have tried to eliminate as much commercially processed food as possible from our diet.  So we now milk 2 cows for our own consumption and to supplement our Dorper & Katahdin lambs as well as the Akbash & Border Collie puppies and fed some little piggies who now reside in our freezer.

I’ve learned to bake with real cream instead of butter or shortening and Pete’s butter is beyond compare with store bought imitations. In trying to be self reliant I envented a spigot girdle for use with a milking machine where the milker has too small of hands to actually hold up the milking claw and attach the four spiggots at the same time.  Apparently something only a woman can understand. Thankfully our cows are very forgiving when I milk alone.

Next year’s goals are actually a continuation of what I didn’t accomplish this year….  First on the list is what I missed accomplishing this year: Learn to bake bread.  Others include labeling and maybe printing some of our pictures, writing actual letters to some older relatives and friends that are shut-ins,  learning to make ice cream from scratch with lots of variations and improving on my technique with that cheese making.

Lorna & Pete raise White Dorper & Katahdin Sheep and Border Collies at Wall 2 Wall Sheep Ranch in Poplarfield, MB   www.wall2wallsheep.com