Potato Harvest

Out of potatoes in the house? No problem! Time to see what's in the potato containers.

G moved them into the garage a few weeks ago once the tops of the potatoes died off. We didn't want the containers to get waterlogged in the rain and rot the potatoes, but we weren't ready to dig them up yet. So they've sat in the garage until now. 

I had to dig down quite a ways to get to the potatoes. 

Not a super gigantic harvest, but the potatoes are much bigger than last year's (for the most part). 

I chopped them up and cooked them in New England Boiled Dinner (cabbage, potatoes, sausage, carrots, water to cover, and salt and pepper to taste). So tasty! I wish I remembered which variety these are... I'd definitely plant them again. 😅

 

Smorgasboard Post- Garden, Mildew, Sybil, Jaron

The soup bean plants have been flowering for a few weeks. G thought they weren't actually going to produce any pods, but Jaron found one. He really wanted to pick it. He's a picking monster. Anything he thinks he can pull on in the garden, he does. 

I thought we had escaped the vining plant mildew this year, but it has appeared. G thinks it's because it wasn't very windy for a number of days so the plants stayed damp. I sprayed them with neem oil, which Google says is supposed to help. 

I did another search and apparently mixing milk with water and spraying it on also does the trick. Hmm... we do have an abundance of milk right now...

Speaking of milk, Sybil has been seen eating in the pasture! She still would rather eat hay from the shed. Her milk production seems to be picking back up a bit. 

For a while, she did not want to put her head in the milking stand; my theory is that it was too tight on her neck. I adjusted the stand- pounded in a fence staple a little further in to give her another inch of neck space- and since then she's gotten a little better about putting her head in. 

Still, for a while it took both G and me to convince her to stick her head through. We actually resorted to using an old sheep halter from my 4H days to pull her head through once she was up on the stand. But, it seems we've turned a corner. The past two milkings G has been able to get her in there himself without help. 

A few fun Jaron moments from the past week: 

 

Apple Pick

Apple season! It's so fun to watch Jaron get excited about picking apples. He did pretty well putting them in the basket and not taking a bite of every single one (though he did take some bites). 

Our apple trees are pretty young still; the oldest has been planted for about three years. That means we aren't getting a huge crop of apples yet. This tree's branches are pretty spindly and you can see how weighed down by the fruit they were- almost touching the ground!

Since we were picking things, we checked out the garden too. 

I planted these beets last fall and thought none of them had come up! Lo and behold, two grew to a pickable size- candy cane beets. They certainly live up to their name!

We did another apple pick this past weekend at my parents' farm. Their apple trees were all ready to harvest, so we brought our students along to give them the apple picking experience. 

Focaccia, Fresh Ground Flour Style

I wondered if part of my problem with fresh ground flour is the recipes I'm using. Maybe I'd have better results if I found recipes that call for fresh flour. 

So I found a focaccia recipe from Grits and Grains. 

The dough came together quite nicely; I was very pleased. And then what always happens when I make bread happened. I had to leave the house right when it went into the oven. 🤦‍♀️

Thankfully, G was going to be home just in time to take it out of the oven. 

Unfortunately, he ran late and the timer was going off when he walked through the door. We're not sure how long it had been going off. 😕

So, I'm not sure how many of the issues are because of the bake vs. my baking skills, ha. 

It was very salty. If I make it again I'd definitely cut back on the salt. 

It was pretty gritty. I didn't mind, but G wasn't a fan. I could try sifting the flour to take the big pieces out, although the recipe didn't call for that. 

It was pretty dry. Definitely caused by the bake. 

Otherwise, it was pretty good! 

I might use the leftovers as bread for grilled cheese. 🤔

Yellow Milk?

Sybil has been at our homestead for about a week and she's gradually getting more adventurous in her eating. I've both seen her eating grass in the pasture and noticed it in her milk. 

The fresh milk we get has stayed the same color, but the freeze dried milk has more of a yellow tint. My theory was that the higher nutrients in the pasture were causing the color change. 

I asked Google to make sure:

Why Goat Milk Stays White

• Beta-Carotene Conversion: Fresh pasture grass contains beta-carotene, a yellow-orange pigment. When cows eat grass, this pigment passes into their milk, giving it a golden-yellow hue. [1, 2]
• Vitamin A Metabolism: Goats (like sheep) metabolize beta-carotene much more efficiently. Their bodies convert the pigment into colorless Vitamin A instead of passing the yellow color into the milk. [1, 2, 3]
• Consistent Appearance: Because of this efficient conversion, goat milk remains stark white whether the animals eat stored hay or graze on fresh, green spring pasture. [1]

Hmm, interesting, but doesn't explain the color change. Maybe because ours is freeze dried? 

"While a goat's body normally prevents fresh milk from turning yellow, the process of freeze-drying changes the rules entirely. When you alter your goat's feed, you alter the concentration of certain nutrients and fats that freeze-drying exposes to plain view.

Diet Shifts Overwhelm the "Vitamin A Switch"- A rapid shift to a much richer feed (such as lush green grass, clover, or fresh alfalfa high in carotenoids) can temporarily disrupt the goat's high-efficiency conversion of beta-carotene into colorless Vitamin A. When this happens, trace amounts of yellow carotenoids slip past the liver and bind to the milk fat globules. While you won't see this in the liquid milk, the dehydration process concentrates these fats, making the yellow hue visible in powder form." 

It also said the color could be from higher riboflavin levels, changes in fat globule size, or a higher lactose (milk sugar) level (causing a faint Maillard reaction -caramelization between milk sugars and proteins). 

Fascinating!

Her milk production has dramatically dropped. Friday morning she produced half what she started at when we got her. Apparently this shift happens for the first 1-2 weeks in a new place. We just gotta hang in there and ride it out. 

If she does end up drying out, I don't think either G or I will be terribly sad about it. Dealing with all the milk has been challenging. Even so, I would probably feel a bit of failure that we couldn't acclimate her well enough to keep milk going. The environment change she's adjusting to is pretty massive, so it wouldn't surprise me. 

We do want the lamancha genetics in our herd, so we plan to keep her around long enough to breed/kid, even if we don't keep her specifically long-term. 

Garden Update

The short answer - zucchini and cucumbers. Everything else is slow. 

The longer answer - the plants are staying small, but there are small veggies beginning to form. Peppers are slow. Tomatoes are slow. Herbs are doing okay. 

My melons and squash have avoided the mildew from the past two years! I actually have a couple growing on the trellis. I tied them up in a net so they don't break off the vine prematurely. 

My poor cucumber plants (three varieties) have been attacked by squash bugs. We treated them with diatomaceous earth and a soapy spray. One variety is completely dead, even with treatment. The other two are hanging in there. They've been strong enough to send out new growth on the bottom even while the tops are decimated by bugs.

I'll end on a fun note. Weeks ago, I accidentally broke off a couple branches of my cherry tomato plant. I was so annoyed because they had a bunch of fruit on them. Wasted! 

I couldn't bear to throw them on the compost pile, so I left them in the garage. This week, a pop of red caught my eye. They're ripening!

Now they're in the house for us to eat. 😀

Freshly Milled Flour

I finally got around to milling the three different grains we purchased for home milled flour. 

Hard red and hard white- used in baked goods with yeast. Soft white- used in baked goods with baking soda or powder. 

Freshly milled flour lasts about a week at room temp, two months in the fridge, and six months in the freezer (freshness and nutrient quality). For ease of use, I ground a half gallon worth each and currently store them in the fridge. The whole berries are in the pantry in glass jars, and the rest of the bulk bags are in the fruit room under the stairs. 

Using them is going to take some adjustments. I made a roux for homemade chicken wild rice soup. The soup was fantastic. Definitely saving that recipe. The milled flour wasn't noticeable. 

I made a batch of carrot zucchini muffins, and you can definitely tell the flour is different. They're very crumbly and have a grainy texture. I should probably sift the flour or grind it a second time to get it finer. 

I also made a pie crust for pastie pie. So hard to roll out!!! Worse than the gluten free crust! Sticky and crumbly. 

You'll notice I attempted the cookie cutter top crust again. My flowers are blobs this time. (And I ran out of dough.) 😜

Everywhere I've read says that freshly milled flour is more absorbent and you'll need to increase the water. I only found that to be true with the muffins. They also say that the batter/dough need time to rest so the gluten can relax/absorb the liquid/do it's thing. I definitely didn't do that with the pie crust, so that's probably part of my issue. 

I feel very torn right now because I have favorite recipes that work very well with regular flour; it would be easy to stick with them and give up on the home milling. But I want to give freshly milled flour a chance and fix some of the errors I no doubt am doing. I should probably find someone who's been baking with this kind of flour for a long time and ask them to teach me their ways...