The End!

Okay, well if you haven't figured it out by now...I'm done with this blog. I met my goal--I am working on a farm and doing quite well with it. I made the transition from office to barn. (Best move of my life!)

This last post is to say that I have a new blog over on wordpress. It will follow my thoughts on various food and farm related topics. The first posts are all about pig slaughtering and butchering...check it out now!

August Already?!

Well I've been busy here at Olde Oak Farm and I must say, after reading back through some of last year's posts, that this year is so much different! (And Better!) What a difference a year makes!

So what is going on down on the farm?

To begin with, the rest of kidding season went smoothly--45 kids in 2 weeks! We are keeping 9 girls this year and just one buck for breeding (Big Joe.)

We had another apprentice here this summer also. Jenny. She was here from mid May up until last Monday. She's a student at Rutgers in New Jersey (she would appreciate it if you keep the Jersey jokes to yourself.) Jenny was my right-hand woman in the cheeseplant for the last 3 months. She got a lot of experience with our soft cheeses and made her own batches of Camembert and Havarti (a cheese I had never tried). The Havarti came out very very nice! We did a fresh dill and a plain. We just cut the dill and took it to market after giving Jenny a nice big wedge to take home and share with her family.

This year, I am running the cheeseplant. I'm now the "Head cheesemaker" and senior apprentice. Fancy title! Basically this means that I'm very happy here at Olde Oak and I've taken on more responsibility. I spent more time working with and teaching Jenny than Scott or Jen and it was definitely as much a learning experience for me as it was for her. Managing people is not a skill I've ever had to develop before and I think I equally enjoyed and dreaded some days. :)

Today, we hosted the August meeting of the Maine Cheese Guild. We gave a tour to about 10 members and fellow cheesemakers of the cheeseplant and barn and the new house. Then we sat down and talked business for a while and finally, tasted cheeses that we all brought to share. It was a good meeting and I'm glad it's over! Having all these other cheesemakers here was a bit nerve-wracking! But I think everyone was impressed with the new location and barn, not to mention the house. Coming up in a couple weeks, I'll be making a Tomme during the week of Labor day. Everyone involved will follow Peter Dixon's recipe which can be found on his website. Then, a short 4 months later, all of us cheesemakers will converge for our holiday meeting and try each other's cheeses. I haven't made a Tomme before, so it should be an interesting and fun project!

Beyond that, I've decided to stay on for my third season here next year. And I'm hoping to travel abroad this winter for a couple months to learn more and hone my skills in affinage (the art of aging and ripening cheeses.) I'd like to focus on the care and maintenance of washed rinds, cloth-bound cheddars and maybe learn more about bloomy-rind cheeses as well.

Well that's my world here in Maine. Maybe I'll even get around to updating this again with more on my Tomme.

Till next time...

Kids are here!

Gem, Prudence and Opal's kids.

We're currently at 8 kids and counting...

Update on the Epoisses: It's been just over a week since I made my first batch of Epoisses (see last post) I've been washing them with a salt water brine, KL-71 (yeast) and b. linens. They are starting to develop an interesting smell. A very thin coating of white mold (Geotrichum) has begun to bloom on them and has raised the pH on the surface from 4.8 up to 5.2. We should see some b. linens development here soon. B.linens or Brevibacterium Linens is the culture that gives the washed rind cheeses their characteristic orange/red surface color and strong smell.

More pictures of kids and cheese coming soon....

Quick Time

This is quite a short post, just wanted to update and let you all know that no, we haven't had any kids yet...but within the next week we should have our first of the season! I'll definitely have the camera ready. Gem could go anytime this week. (That's Gem and her baby bump in the blue collar on the right in the photo above.) Jen and Scott have had her for 4 or 5 years and she's never kidded here. She is most definitely pregnant this year! And she should be the first to go. Her due dates are Monday (already past) and Friday...here we go!

And today I joined a forum for cheesemakers called cheeseforum.org. I already posted a question about an experimental batch of washed rind cheeses that I'm trying out and I'm learning a lot about this cheese! The cheese I'm trying to duplicate I believe is Epoisses. (Ay-Pwos) I think this is the mystery cheese that I tried in London back in October. I was pretty burnt out from the end of the season here and I wasn't thinking too much about cheese...just tasting some at the Borough Market. A French style of washed rind, it is no bigger than a camembert, covered in a nice orange rind. Should have a strong, ripe smell but should not taste as strong as it smells. Today I made my first attempt and half way through I realized a mistake in my cheesemake and went with one pressed wheel of cheese instead of the multiple small rounds of cheese that are drained under their own weight and not pressed. I let the pH get away from me and the curds would not have knit well unless they were pressed into a wheel. I'll attempt it again on Friday this week and hope that Gem either has her kids Thursday or Saturday. :)

In the meantime, I'm milking the ladies over at Clovercrest Dairy (our partner cow-farm) and Wednesday, we have a possible 2nd apprentice coming for a visit and tour of our farm. I've been taking the goats out for walks in the snow the past week. They hate the snow...but they LOVE to eat all the pine needles off the white pine and fir trees around the fields. Tomorrow should be another beautiful day for a walk with some goat friends of mine.

It's about time for some cheese!

Since I'm a cheesemaker, I think it's time I post something about cheese. Cheese that I've made. So let's talk Cheddar! I visited a friend in London, England back in October and though I focused mainly on spending time with my dear friend Daneil, I also tasted lots and lots of cheeses. One of my favorite cheeses is Montgomery's Cheddar. It's sharp and the cheddar taste cuts right to your tastebuds. It's crumbly...but not dry. If you see some in a cheese shop, you should ask for a taste and definitely take a little home with you.

The cheddar I make is nothing like Montgomery's, but I'm learning more each time I make it. Normally, we always heat treat (pasteurize) our milk before starting the cheese-make, but a few weeks ago we went raw! I made my first raw milk cheese and it felt oh so good!

Cheddar is a cooked-curd cheese meaning that once the curds have separated from the whey, they are stirred and slowly cooked in the whey. After the right temperature and pH is reached, the whey is drained and the process of "cheddaring" begins.

This is a picture of the curds in the vat before the whey has been drained.

Cheddaring is a process in cheesemaking. After the whey is drained out of the vat, all you are left with is a big pile of curds that are still holding on to some whey. These curds clump and melt together into one mass of curd. If I tried to make a cheese out of this curd without cheddaring, it would probably make a rather bland cheese because the pH is still high (less acidic). What we want to do is give the curds some time in a nice warm environment to let the pH drop (more acidic) and let more whey drain out.

So I separate the pile of curds into 2 piles with a trench down the middle. This allows more whey to drain out while the curds are cheddaring. After 15 minutes, I flip both of the piles of curds which have settled and sort of melted down into 2 slabs of curds. After another 15 minutes I cut each slab in half and stack the halves on top of one another. Every 15 minutes I come back and check on the curds and flip the slabs. If the slabs get too flat, I cut them again and re-stack. Meanwhile, the pH is dropping, whey is draining out of the curds and the curd itself is getting a more elastic look and feel. It's soft and the individual curds are almost impossible to see.

This is a picture of the slabs at the bottom of the vat during the cheddaring process.

When the pH is good and I'm happy with how the slabs look, I pull out my trusty french-fry potato slicer thingy and I mill the slabs of curd through it. I place all the curds in a big bowl and salt them and mix them. After letting them rest for about 15 minutes, I scoop up the curds and place them into the forms where they will be pressed into wheels of cheese overnight.

Ta Da! Cheddarific!

This is our cheese press with 3 wheels of cheese pressing.

Winter Project: Run your Business

Hope everyone is enjoying a relaxing holiday season and eating lots of delicious, local food!
I am home in Ohio for 2 short weeks and I finally have time to sit down for a real update:

As the next step in my apprenticeship, Scott suggested that I take a turn at running the business for the winter. At first, I was terrified at the "make it or break it" opportunity ahead of me...but Scott and Jen both pointed out that is exactly what farming is. You have to be willing to take that chance. And in the past couple months of November and December, after attending a few holiday craft shows and some markets in Skowhegan, at the new 7 Island Marketplace, I've received great feedback and awesome reviews from all the new people I've met. --And I've been able to pay my bills. :)
So how does it work?
I run cow's milk cheeses in the cheeseplant (with our unlimited supply of fresh organic cow milk from Clovercrest) throughout the winter months and find new markets to attend with my cheese. I handle the advertising, the cheesemaking, the market setup, and the costs of supplies and utilities to run the cheeseplant. Normally, Olde Oak Farm pays Clovercrest farm for half of any and all profits from cow's milk cheese. I talked to Steve (owner of Clovercrest, our partner farm) and we decided that I would pay him 40 percent of all cow cheese profits and would keep 60 percent to help offset the costs of gas, and the higher price of these markets.

Now with the holidays coming to a close, I'll be out looking for some new outlets for my cheese...Any suggestions??
I am very lucky to have such awesome mentors (Scott and Jen!) at Olde Oak Farm. They have really pushed me this year to be not just an employee at the farm. I have learned through invaluable experience some of what it takes to run my own farm...and l'm sure this next year will take me even further towards that goal.

Now, I said in my last post that if you live in the state of Maine, you'd be able to get your cheese fix all winter long and that is true. Olde Oak Farm attends the Orono Farmer's Market on the 4th Saturday of each month through April. The market is located downtown in Orono in the parking lot behind Pat's Pizza and the hardware store. You can't miss it! Market hours are shorter in the cold cold winter months. 9am till noon. See you there!

And I'll still be attending the Skowhegan indoor market place every other Saturday. The next market for me will be Saturday, January 9th. From 9am till 5pm at 7 Island in the big, old factory building there. Hope to see you!!

Where to Find Us...

If you're in the greater Maine state area anytime this winter and in need of a cheese fix, do not fear! We have not gone into hibernation mode. We will be out and selling cheeses at various markets and special events throughout the winter. More specifically, I will be out and selling cheese at many new and changing locations...but more on that new development later. For now, all you need to know is this:

Sunday, November 22
Skowhegan market opening weekend
11am - 5pm.


Saturday and Sunday, November 28 & 29
Augusta Civic Center
Christmas in New England Craft Show
10am - 4pm

Saturday, December 5 (We're in 2 places at once!)
Page Farm and Home museum - Holiday Shoppe
at the U Maine Campus in Orono
10am - 4pm
http://www.umaine.edu/pagefarm/

AND

The Skowhegan market

10am - 5pm

See you there!

More to come soon on the winter project I'm taking on as the next step in my apprenticeship.

Happy Thanksgiving!

In the News!

Hey Olde Oak Farm made the Bangor Daily News last week! (sorry I'm a little behind as usual)

MAXFIELD, Maine — The dairy goats at Olde Oak Farm seemed right at home Sunday, munching on pasture grass and hobnobbing with the curious visitors who came to stroke their floppy ears, giggle at their capricious ways and sample the many tasty cheeses made from their milk.

Check out the full article here: http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/124856.html

AND! There's a short picture/audio story up on youtube about me. We had a woman from University of Maine do a story for a class about the farm. Check that one out here:

Burn Out / Winding Down? (2 for the price of 1)

After all the rain we had earlier this summer, August and September have been nothing but gorgeous sun-filled days here in Maine. As you've noticed, if you keep up with my blog, I have not been posting for a while. Today it is raining. Today I was hoping to catch the last day of MOFGA's Common Ground Country Fair...it's an event I've heard about since before I even moved to Maine. Fortunately for you it is raining and I just don't have the energy, the cash or the gumption to drive a total of 4 hours and then sit in the cold rain to learn about bee keeping, cover crops, or weaving with mohair. I don't mean to whine, but I'm tired!

My head swims when I try to sit and think clearly on what exactly I've learned so far this year at the farm.(It swims even more when I think of the things I have yet to learn.) I will definitely need the winter months to process some of this. Then maybe I can form a better answer than the sarcastic one I've been giving lately: Yeah, I've learned a ton this summer...most importantly: Do Not move your farm.

Somehow, the entire month of August went by in a flash and at the end of it, we had moved 40 goats, several buildings, the buck barn, the cheeseplant, everything from the old house and we completed a new giant greenhouse barn to house the goats and the new milk parlor. Then my parents visited for a week, then Scott's parents visited for 2 weeks. And throughout all this, we still kicked ass at market, delivering our delicious cheese to our customers as if it was second nature. Our asses were dragging, but our eyes were bright and we continued to laugh.

At first, I thought this would be a post as an update to what I've been doing for the past 2 months, but I think I'd rather stay current and talk some about burn out. Scott and Jen and various other farmers have shared with me that everyone--Everyone who works on a farm goes through burn out. There's nothing to do to avoid it. When I hit a small patch of burn out earlier in the summer, everyone told me the best way to get over it was to work through it. Not the answer you want to hear at the time...but they were right. I worked through it on auto-pilot and within a few days I was back with a clear head and ready to make some more cheese!

Then there is another type of burn out which I unfortunately hit the week before my parents got here. My mood changed pretty dramatically and I had a terrible temper. I was loosing it on the goats and being a jerk to the people around me. Nothing made me happy and I did not want to be in that cheeseplant or in the barn or even in the house. Of course there is no such thing as an opportune time when working on a farm. Scott told me to take a couple days off and I did. He and Jen worked to cover the gap that I left and we all survived. My parents visit was more stressful than I ever imagined it would be and now, a month later, I feel like I'm finally getting back on top of things with my work. I think the burn-out is behind me for this season and I'm already looking forward to next season.

* * * * * *

Can you believe I honestly thought things would slow down in the fall? We have just as much cheese to make each week plus extra for special events and the holiday season, even though our supply of goat milk is dwindling each day with the sunlight. As difficult and long as the days can be here, I know that I made the choice to be here and I continue to choose this life each day. I went into this apprenticeship looking for the answers to these questions: What is goat farming like? Would I like goat farming? Now I know the answers to those questions, and new questions have formed to take their place: Is this the right lifestyle for me? Do I want to devote my life's work to this?

There are countless things I still need to do and things I need to learn and things I need to improve on. Things that need fixed, things I need to think about and put into practice. Things that will just have to wait till next year, things to do this winter and things that needed done 2 weeks ago. I guess I didn't really understand Jen earlier in the summer when she described this lifestyle as an all out sprint for 8 months and then off for 4. She said she is good as a distance runner, someone who can work a long ways at an even pace. But that she's still not sure if she wants to do the 8 month sprint. At times, it doesn't seem like a healthy way to sustain life, but I haven't made it to the off-season yet. I am very much anticipating a break, a time to reconnect with my friends and time to begin planning for my own farm.

Taking a Bee Break

Every now and then I get a little free time and I try to update the blog. I also try to do other things non-goat or cheese related. Scott knew I was interested in learning bee-keeping and he used to work for a commercial place that had 1,000 hives. So he decided to get me a little side project to learn. A few weeks ago we drove down near Skowhegan and picked up 3 boxes of bees! We brought them up to the new farm in Maxfield where they have fields of flowers and trees to enjoy. We finally got them all transfered into their new hives yesterday. 

All three hives are pretty active and the bees seem happy in their new hives and have lots more room to spread out and store up honey. So far I haven't had the courage to do much when we were working with the bees. I stand by and use the smoker and mostly watch Scott. I'm getting more comfortable being around them, but I haven't been stung yet. I'm too careful and cautious right now. But it's really fun and very interesting to see the bees at work. They are really sweet honeybees. And the more I watch them up close, I think they are very cute little creatures. 

We've had something like 32 days of rain out of the last 40 days here in the Orono/Bangor area...and I think it's like this over most of Maine but I haven't had the chance to keep up much with local (or any) news. I know that it's mostly all that people talk about at farm markets. I've also been assured by several people that this is not typical Maine weather. How are the bees handling all this rain? Well we fed them with a gallon jar full of thick, syrupy sugar water because if they don't have the chance to fly, they still need to eat and they still need something to help them make up for all the lost honey in their hives. 

The bees didn't go through the jar as fast as we thought they would. It took them about a week to finish off the gallon of sugar water. We mixed up another jar yesterday and left it for them to enjoy. It looks like we won't have the chance to get any honey from our bees this year. They will need to store it all up for themselves to make it through the long winter here in Maine. So next year we are hoping to make some Honey Mead. And hopefully by then, I'll be much more comfortable and knowledgeable with the bees. 

To market to market to buy some fresh cheese!

Happy belated 4th of July! 

This week I thought I'd talk marketing now that market season is in full swing! As I mentioned in my last post, we sell all of our cheese at farmer's markets. It's so rewarding and a lot of fun to sell cheese face to face to our loyal cheese customers and to goat-cheese virgins alike. In the short 4 months that I've been here at  Olde Oak Farm, Scott has taught me a lot about marketing. Before I moved here I knew that marketing myself and salesmanship were two of my weakest points. But now I really look forward to markets. Not only does it allow me a little social time away from the farm, but every market also gives me a chance to practice and improve my selling skills. (Right now I'm working on the closing of the deal.) 

I think before I began working here I took a very laissez-faire point of view  towards marketing and selling cheese. I figured it would sell itself. Who wouldn't buy fresh, local, delicious cheese?? I've learned that LOTS of people won't. There are many reasons. One of the biggest reasons Scott has talked about this week is trust. When you go to a veggie vendor, you usually aren't worried about getting sick from the tomatoes or broccoli. Dairy farming is a little different in that way. Not only does the cheese need to taste good, but it needs to be from high quality milk and you need to convince the customer that they can trust you and your product. At the same time, you're giving them a tour of the cheeses on the table, encouraging them to try it, making small talk, doing a little mental math and paying attention to other customers walking by the table and trying to get their attention. 

Farmers markets are a 4 or 5 hour window for us to sell as much cheese and make as much money as possible so that we can continue to break even and afford to feed the goats and run the cheese plant...and even pay the apprentice. :) All the work we do every day, all day adds up to farmers markets. With that said, I'll give you a little inside view into the producer side of things at market that the consumers may or may not be aware of. 

The Olde Oak farm market rules: 

1. No sitting or leaning during market 

2. Say hello to everyone that walks by the stand, whether they are customers or not. 

3. Never say NO. If someone asks if we have something that we do not have. Instead of saying no, we say we'll have it next week or we try to redirect them to something similar. 

Each farm has its own persona and each person at that farm has their own character that they play while at market. These "characters" are really just an exaggerated extension of their true personalities. I'm the excited, new apprentice at the farm. I'm learning how to make all these delicious cheeses and I know you want to taste them all! The persona of Olde Oak Farm looks like a group of happy hippies making cheese and loving their goats. We name all the goat cheeses after the goats. And we make the flavors to match their personalities. "This is Opal. She's the sweetest goat in the herd. Never kicks me when I'm milking her. We made her cheese sweet. It's orange-ginger marmalade with sliced almonds on top." And so on. 

It's cool when you start watching other vendors at market. Where we have the no sitting, say hello to everyone rule, other vendors are much more laid back. The maple syrup guy just sits back on the tailgate of his truck and doesn't say anything to anyone who walks by until they come over and ask a question about maple syrup...then you can't get him to stop talking until suddenly you are taking home a jug of syrup and a little more appreciation for sugaring. 

Scott says that everyone is a customer when they walk by our stand...they just might not know it yet. Scott has a very big persona at market. He talks louder and laughs and knows everyone. Super friendly, "Best day of my life, how about you?" And he is great at gaining people's trust. Jen is a little more soft spoken. She pays close attention to people's kids and dogs. She's great at keeping an eye on the table and moving things around strategically to sell more. 

So next time you are out at a market(which should be this weekend!)consider a few things:

*What is the persona of your favorite farmer/vendor? 

*Why are you drawn in to some vendors/farmers more than others? 

Life Goes On

All of the cheese we make here at Olde Oak Farm gets sold at farmers markets in the area. Being a rather new (only 3 years old) business, we only sell at a few markets right now. We sell at Orono Market on Saturdays. This year we expanded to selling at the Brewer market also on Saturdays. These markets start up the first week of May. Two weeks ago we added on Bangor market which is an evening market on Thursdays in downtown Bangor. In two days we'll add on the Tuesday afternoon market in Orono. Four markets a week equals a lot of cheese and a lot of work making, preparing and packaging all that yummy cheese! So if I've been out of touch lately...this is more than likely the reason and it's about to get worse.  I'll try to keep y'all updated as much as possible though. I know you can't live without the next installment of Life on the Goat Farm! 

Unfortunately this week was also Nate's last week at the farm. Nate decided to take a turn on a new path and I hope he finds what he is looking for on his journey. Farming is a difficult lifestyle. Long exhausting days with little pay. People can burn out easily and it's not uncommon for people to leave. More notice and communication would have been appreciated, but we will not let the farm suffer. We just have to step it up for the goats and the cheese and for the community that believes in and supports us. With a clear understanding of just how much work I now have ahead of me as the only apprentice at the farm, I am excited to get to work and get us geared up for all these markets! But first I'm enjoying a nice, restful day off today. 

So what else is new here? Bees! We picked up three boxes of bees last Saturday!! Scott wanted to get me a side project--something else I'm interested in learning. He has past work experience as a bee keeper so we got honey bees! They are up at the new house and Scott has been keeping an eye on them. It's been raining almost everyday this week but some sunny day I'll try to get some photos of them. We are going to get them into the hives and find the queen in each one. If the hives do really well this summer we may get some honey in August. But we have to make sure they have enough to get them through the winter. So far I have not been stung. *cross your fingers*  :)

I thought I'd post some chicken photos. 

The chickens are sort of neglected here at the farm. They need a little spotlight. I really didn't like the chickens much at first. They don't seem like very intelligent birds. But they are very useful around the farm. They eat lots of bugs and pests out of the gardens. They make little dirt baths for themselves to keep the mites away. While I was finishing up milking earlier this week I looked over and there was a chicken sitting on Gem's back.

 I wish I had been able to grab a camera! It was so funny! Gem was so pleased with her chicken. The chicken was picking bugs out of her fur and at the same time walking around her back with it's talons and goats love a good scratching. What was more surprising was when Pretty (another goat) came up beside Gem and nuzzled the chicken with her face. The chicken hopped over on Pretty's back. A few minutes later Gem walked around the other side of Pretty and carefully stuck her face right into the chicken's feathers and coaxed the chicken back on to her back. Too cute! Goats sharing a chicken. The goats were so pleased with themselves. Gem's eyes were closed and she had the biggest smile on her face as the chicken walked around on her back. 

 

Well that's all from the farm this week folks!

On a cold day in June...

How much do I like cheese?

Happy Memorial Day! The lilacs are blooming, the birds are singing and the black flies are biting! OUCH! 

Instead of giving you a run down of everything that's happened this week--because I imagine that does get a little repetitive after a while--I wanted to write a little on something that struck me last week. 

I was home alone here and heat treating milk to make cheese in the cheese plant. As I learned the week before, the temperatures must be exact or the cheese could fail. So I've got my hair net on and I'm heating 20 gallons of milk to exactly 145 degrees and then I have to keep it there for a half hour before I cool down to exactly 82 degrees. I'm focused and trying to nail my temperatures. Outside the weather is overcast and getting pretty windy. I hear goats yelling. When I look out the window, our 4 yearling does have busted out of their pen and are currently stripping down the little pine trees in front of the cheese plant. Bad goats! My milk is only at 100 degrees, so I run outside and turn off the electric fence and get them back in and turn on the electric again. I fix the fence and everything looks fine. I run back to the cheese plant.

Whew! Only 115 degrees. 5 minutes later, they are out again! What the hell? I run outside and wow the wind is really blowing! The greenhouse barn looks like it could take off. I grab some more wooden pallets and attempt to hold down the plastic with their weight. I think the girls are somehow sneaking out through the loose sides of the greenhouse barn. I try to barricade them in with pallets and a random board that Jen was using earlier. I'm on my knees trying to figure out how to keep the girls in and I know it's a loosing battle. Oh crap! The milk. I run back to the cheese plant. 135 degrees. Well the girls can stay out I have to get the temperatures right. So I get the milk into its half hour of heat treating. It's stable at 145 degrees. I rush back outside. Now some of the babies are getting out. Crap! The girls are still out too. I'm grabbing pallets and jamming them into the crawl space that I think they're using to get out. The plastic down the sides of the greenhouse barn has come unrolled and is loose and flapping around a lot in the wind. Okay they are back in their pen. But 5 minutes later...of course they are out again. How aggravating! I can't believe I'm doing this all for cheese! 

Well wait a minute...am I doing this all just for some cheese? Sort of, yes. I'm doing all of this--working harder than I ever have in my life--so that at the end of each week I can come to market with a good, delicious, healthy, high quality product that I'm proud to say I helped make. It's all so we can bring good food to our community. It's such a simple goal. 

I talked to Scott about it a day or 2 later and he laughed because he knows. I think I'm just starting to understand it...or not understand it. Because it may be a simple goal, but the amount of physical work, stress and attention to detail that it takes to meet that goal can be quite  overwhelming. Am I nuts? Is it all worth it? Do I really love cheese that much? And that is when Scott reminds me that it's a life style--not just a job. Over the past few months I've had to break out of the 9 to 5 mentality. Switch it around. It's much more like 5 to 9. The work never ends. 

And to answer my questions-- Yes! I am nuts, it is worth it and I do like cheese a lot. It's very satisfying work. I feel like I have a purpose and I'm actually part of something bigger--something important that matters to me and the folks I live with and the community that supports the farm markets. Especially the community that doesn't come out to the farm markets...hopefully they stop by sometime and fall in love with our cheese or the fresh veggies or eggs or meats. I don't really know how else to explain it to people...how to get them to think about the food that they eat and to consider even more the people who worked so hard to bring it to them. Before I moved here I thought I was a very concious consumer. I attended farm markets pretty religiously and would stretch my budget for better quality food. And even knowing I was coming out here to live and work on a farm and make cheese. I still didn't understand how difficult it is. I didn't think about how much work really went into those heirloom tomatoes or the cheese or the butternut squashes. I was very happy to shake the hand that feeds me (thank you colleen for the phrase) but I hadn't put myself entirely in their shoes. Scott and Jen are right--I had the fantasy. Now, I've got some reality to back it up. And there still are moments of fantasy. Especially when I consider what my future might bring. I can still dream up my farming ideas and have a better handle on what is more realistic -- what can I make happen? 

Blogger's Block?!

Can you believe it's almost half way through May??!! So sorry I haven't posted in a few weeks. So much has happened I've been dreading trying to get it all organized and written down here. I have writer's (blogger's?) block! 

Okay so here we go:

1. I got a huge splinter jammed up under a nail on my right hand 2 weeks ago. I couldn't milk for a week. My nail is coming off and it's still stiff and difficult to bend at the top knuckle closest to my nail! OUCH!

2. We lost a 20 gallon batch of chevre (soft goat's milk cheese) early last week. Instead of being nice and creamy and spreadable, it turned out more like mozzarella. Slimy and clumpy.  It took us quite a while to figure out why. Just to be sure it wasn't the milk itself, we checked every goat for Mastitis using the California Mastitis Test or CMT. I'm happy to say that all of our ladies with exception of 2 tested negative and those 2 are very slightly on the line, what may be called a "weak positive." We took them out of the milk tank and are treating them with Vitamin C and good helpings of garlic during feeding. Vitamin C helps boost the immune system...I think garlic does too, but I'll have to check on that.  The reason for the failed cheese we realized is that Katy (our awesome helper who comes to help out with chores and milking during the week) had 2 of the first time milkers confused. We accidently had colostrum mixed into the milk tank and it doesn't make very good cheese. Ooops!  No worries though, we were just glad to figure out what went wrong. We are not taking that cheese to market. I learned a lot about paying attention to the milk quality during and after milking, and the importance of testing often for mastitis. 

3. Last week Scott gave me my first lesson in cheese making in the cheese plant. We made a 10 gallon batch of Boursin (soft cow's milk cheese.) It came out beautiful! Today I set chevre (soft goat's milk cheese) by myself for the first time. I followed all the directions from Scott and Nate and tonight around 8 or so it should be ready to hang! *Keep your fingers crossed that it turns out as good as the Boursin!* Scott said we can't afford to fail on this batch. Eeek! 

4. We still have baby goats! I took them out for a walk on our lunch hour today. It's nice and warm and sunny here! We have two more ladies who have not kidded yet. Prime should be going this weekend and Gem....  well Gem is anyone's guess. Scott doesn't think she's pregnant at all. Jen says she is. I'm not taking a side in this one. :) 

5. The new house is coming right along! Scott and his dad are working all week to lay the floor boards! Nate tiled the kitchen yesterday with beautiful slate tiles!! The water heater should also be installed this week. Then it's only a matter of deciding when we want to move the goats and the cheeseplant and ourselves up there. 

Well those are the highlights.  Things here are just getting busier and crazier. Nate left this morning for his trip out to Colorado for school. He will be gone for a month! So now that I know some more about the goats and what goes on in the barn and how to carefully and safely handle milk, I'll be stepping into the cheese plant more. Scott will be teaching me the techniques and science that go into cheese making and hopefully I'll be keeping you informed of what I'm learning and how the hell I'm going to turn all this into my own farm someday. Believe me, it's on my mind constantly. I don't have any plans yet, but I'm gaining lots of ideas. Scott helps when he starts most comments to me with: "When you have your farm, you'll see..."  Or "Next year, when you start your farm, this is what you'll need to do..." Etc. I appreciate it. Those comments remind me each time of how I got here and why I'm here to begin with. I am having such a great time! I'm learning so much! Seeing so much! Doing so much! I almost feel like a farmer somedays. It's coming. 

Getting Busy!

Wow! It's practically Tuesday and I haven't updated last week yet! Well first things first I guess. I'm sorry to say that Black and Tan did not make it through the week. Simon, our vet came on Monday last week and we decided to put her down. He said she more than likely was not going to recover. That same day we had 2 mommas give birth and gained 5 new baby goats. It was a hell of a roller coaster day.

I pretty much stayed out of the cheese plant last week. I was kept busy with all the new babies and chores. Also I had Wednesday and Thursday off!! (first days off in over a month!) Nate made a ton of cheese and the fridge was packed full by Friday. We had our last winter market Saturday in Orono as well as the Hope Fest at the University of Maine. We sold so much cheese! And the cheese was great! We were all so proud of our cheese and of the goats and the farm. It was awesome to see our customers' response and to meet new customers and tell them all about the cheese. It was also exhausting! Talking to so many people and staying so excited can easily ware you out.

This Saturday starts up the full time market season. We'll be in Orono and Brewer on Saturdays--every Saturday from now till they tell us to stop coming. We also have Orono market on Tuesdays I think. Then at some point a Bangor market starts up on Thursdays and if we feel like it, we can go to Brewer also on Friday. What a schedule! That's a lot of cheese and a lot of milk and a lot of energy.

Tomorrow (if I have time) I'd like to record a video blog update so keep checking back for that. In the mean time--watch out for the swine flu! But don't worry, eating pork from your local farmer is safe. I worry that the title of this flu bug is bad for our fellow farmers. Let's all eat pork this week! Mmmmm.

A Lesson in Disbudding

Well another week has flown by here at Olde Oak Farm. We only had one momma (Sunny) kid and that was on Monday. We're already gearing up for our next wave of births which could start today or tomorrow if Clarece goes on schedule. We sold some of the kids this week and we're back down to 7.

This week I spent a lot of time with the kids. I've been feeding them 3 times a day and they are ravenous little eaters! Mostly. Jen noticed midweek Black and Tan (one of the kids) had lost some significant weight. She's been constipated and dehydrated. We aren't sure what the reason is, but we've been spending a lot of time with her and trying to get her re-hydrated and back up to good health. Also, when the goats are looking a little slow and not as vibrant as we would like, we will give them an injection of Vitamin B which gives them more energy and helps them perk up. We've given Black and Tan a few Vitamin B shots throughout the week and last night she drank almost a full bottle. 

 Go Black and Tan!

Wednesday evening was rough. Something I've sort of been dreading in the back of my mind ever since I learned about it. Wednesday evening we disbudded 8 of the kids. Don't worry, they are all doing fine now. ( It was probably more traumatizing for me in the long run. )  

If you are one of the folks who asked me if we cut the horns off the goats...Pay attention! Cutting horns is dangerous because they bleed a lot. Disbudding is much more humane. 

* So What is disbudding and why do we do it?? 

Disbudding cauterizes the growth plate of the budding horns on the head of a kid goat, which causes the horns to never grow. Scott used an electric disbudding iron--sort of like a curling iron in that you plug it in and wait for it to get nice and hot. Then he held it to the buds for 8 to 10 seconds each.  All the goats here are disbudded and it's a very common practice in most dairy goat farms. We do it for the safety and health of the goats. Goats are aggressive with each other. They rear up and butt heads. I've seen one specific goat in our herd plow another right in the side several times. With horns, it would be quite easy to tear an u

dder or hurt an eye. By removing the horns, we're giving them a safer environment and reducing the risk of injury to our herd and the milk supply. 

I will let Scott continue to do the disbudding until I feel comfortable trying it myself. We still have quite a few that will need it. In fact we're doing another round tonight. 

And one more note before I have to get back to work: We have started using the milk machine and we'll be making chevre (goat cheese) on Monday! Up to this point, we have been milking by hand and using it just for feeding the baby goats. Between the 7 ladies that we're currently milking, we have about 4 gallons of milk a day. By Monday morning we should have enough for a good sized batch of cheese! We're making the cheese in preparation for a market and a festival next Saturday.  Two

 weeks ago Nate made 75 little rounds of camembert that have been aging and growing the fluffy white mold that makes them so delicious. By the end of the week, the cheese plant will be bursting with cheese to sell!! 

12 and Counting

I took some time out for pictures during a nice, quiet afternoon this week...

This is Pleasure--Momma number one this year. 

Well we're about one third of the way through the kidding season now. 6 goats have had their babies and we have 13 or 14 more to go! The count right now is 12 babies, 8 girls and 4 boys. What a week! Chips (an all white goat) kidded on Tuesday and had a single black and tan girl. Prudence kidded on Thursday with two brown boys. Thursday night I got up to check on Amelia a couple times overnight. She finally kidded after quite a lot of pacing, laying down, standing up, more pacing...  She also struggled quite a bit; it was a tense atmosphere in the barn. Her second baby came out backwards which can be problematic because they can get stuck. Thankfully everything went alright and both kids are happy and healthy. 

After the morning excitement, we checked in on all the ladies and decided it looked like we wouldn't have any more births before Saturday and probably not until Sunday. So we all got busy and ran errands and went back to work on other projects... Until...

Nate and I ran errands and got home for chores right at 5. When Nate took hay down to the ladies barn, he spotted Mystic with a kid half way out! By the time he got my attention and had her separated out from the rest of the herd, she was pretty tense. Scott and Jen were about an hour away and didn't pick up when we called the cell phone.  So we tried to calm ourselves down and focus on Mystic. She followed Amelia's example of laying down and getting up and pacing. Finally, she settled down enough to focus and push. 

After the morning's lesson on kids coming out backwards, I noticed the feet that were coming out were the back hooves. I panicked a bit, but continued to help Mystic by rubbing her and talking to her while she pushed and I pulled. After the hips came, it was mostly a matter of helping to pull out the rest of the gooey, slippery mess that is a baby goat. The second kid came very soon after. Thankfully, she came out correct with two front hooves and the head first. Finally, I was hoping we were done...but no. A third baby came. Backwards again! And this one was much bigger than the first. By this time Mystic didn't have much trouble pushing. I prayed there wasn't a fourth and hooray! No fourth goat came! We were all done and Mystic was actually interested in her babies this year. (I've heard that in the past she hasn't wanted much to do with them.) All three are girls. The first one was smaller and will probably live, but she's had a rough start so far. We're giving her extra attention right now.  

What an adrenaline rush! I don't think I calmed down till after 10 last night, when we finally sat down to some pizza around a camp fire. Ahhhh. I was in bed, nice and exhausted by midnight. 

All to wake up again at 6:30 this morning. Chores took about 2 and a half hours to milk and get everyone fed. Shortly afterwards Sunny decided she'd like to have a baby too! Hers was a relatively simple and straight-forward birth, except she decided she wanted to do it standing up. Whew! One good sized girl and she looks just like her momma!  

That's it for this week. If I have some time in a day or two I will post more photos of babies! 

Finally! Kids are here!

Wow! We finally had our first batch of kids last night. Pleasure kidded around 4:30 in the afternoon. She had 2 girls and a boy. They came out quick! I couldn't believe it. I was feeding the girls and I turned around and Jen already had one out. 

When they come out they are very messy and gooey. We let the moms lick them off a little then we wrap them in a towel and rub them pretty vigorously to get them warm and dry and to stimulate them as much as possible. You want to hear them cry. Then we let the momma lick them some more to help inoculate their immune systems and their rumen. We heat treat the colostrum (first milk from the mommas) and feed it to the babies in bottles. We do this to make absolutely sure the milk is safe for the babies. Also, some of the goats aren't the best mothers and wouldn't care to feed the babies. By hand feeding the babies they develop an attachment to us which will make it much easier to work with them throughout their lives. 

So the season has finally officially begun! We were up early this morning to milk and feed the babies. We're keeping an eye on Chips today. Next up is Mystic on Thursday and we have 5 scheduled to kid on Friday! So by next Saturday, this place will be mayhem! Stay tuned...

Cat and Rabbit: BFF

Bun update! The bunny and Toulouse became friends this week! They're hanging out right now while I write this. Really the cat is more confused and concerned with the rabbit's presence. The bun could care less. 

It has been a pretty relaxing week here at the farm...definitely the calm before the storm. Friday morning Scott, Nate, Katie and I worked in the cheese plant packing cheese and making mozzarella for the market on Saturday. Jen and I went to market Saturday morning and had a great time! The sun was warm and lots of people bought cheese. I met a lot of customers. 

Right now, we're still in winter market mode. We only go once a month on the last Saturday of the month. So our next market will be the last Saturday in April. Full time market swings into action on the following Saturday, May 2nd. By then most of the goats will be producing milk and the cheese plant should be in full operation. 

I also spent more time getting to know the ladies this week. Elsa will freshen (kid) first this week on Thursday. Chips follows her on Saturday and Pleasure is scheduled for Sunday. I'm not sure if they will actually stick to the schedule or not, but I'm ready for some kids! We went over the lists of names this afternoon. Jen has a list of themes for each goat. Each generation gets its own theme. Elsa's kids will all be flowers. Their kids will be trees and so on.