Coyote Ridge FarmsWelcome To Our Rural Blog

Today is the day we send our 4H’er off to the Minnesota State Fair for 4 days.  At the County Fair level daughter Madison won several State Fair trips.

This morning she will start her first trip with a bus ride, with other 4H’ers, to the Metro.  She will be showing her mini lop bunny on 8am, Saturday… as well as giving her State Fair quality demonstration on Friday.  She will hanging with other kids that will also be showing rabbits.  There is quite a little group going.

Madison waiting for the state fair charter bus

Carol and I will be heading out to the fair on Sat. to watch the rabbit show.  After Sunday, Madison will have a few days off before going back to the State Fair for her 3rd project – an information display on how to make Mozzarella cheese from raw milk.

This morning, after dropping Madison off at the County Fairgrounds, Carol and I had an appointment with the loan officer at the Concord Bank, in Willmar.  We’re trying to secure a loan, in order to purchase a used house for the farm.  After speaking with the Farm Management Program instructor from the Willmar Community College, we were told that the Concord is a small, independently owned bank that is farmer friendly… more so than the larger area banks.  Carol and I have spoken with 2 other banks, but because the farm is in a non-revocable trust, it’s been tough going.  We’re hoping Concord is not afraid of the trust.  The other banks mentioned that since the farm is in the trust that it is in, nobody really owns the farm – thus… technically, no “person” is responsible for the loan.

After the bank meeting, Carol and I walked away from it with a less than optimistic feeling.  It seems that the bank has never given a loan to a trust… I think it is fair to mention, the bank president also stated that the bank had never had the opportunity to do such.  With that said, one might preclude from saying that there is no chance that we can get a loan from this bank.  I just don’t get the feeling our chances are much better than with the other banks.    I guess we’ll see.

Carol knew what to do.  She started canning jam.  She had a few flats of strawberries and some stalks of rhubarb that needed to be preserved so she made 9½ pints of strawberry-blackberry jam, and the same amount of strawberry-rhubarb jam.  She then made some cheddar cheese from our raw goat milk.

I, on the other hand, went outside in between rain showers to do a little of this, then a little of that.  One of the tasks was to pound a single post in the vineyard.  Carol and I decided it was time to reinvest some of our time back into the grapes.  We want to string high-tensile wire between the posts for the vines to cling to.  We’re hoping to have better luck with the grapes this year.  Last year we were hit by hail.  The storm took the vines down to the ground.

Tonight, Carol and a friend went to the livestock auction in Hutchinson, MN.  Carol set out to buy some meat goats, if there were some available at an affordable price… we’ve been selling quite a few goats here at the farm and felt we want to give our customers a good selection in which to choose from.  This will be Carol’s first livestock auction experience.

I received a call this morning. It was a gentleman who identified himself as Mark, from Minnesota Public Radio (MPR)  The main topic, being the raw milk issue in Minnesota, which is just now making it to the national new services.

This is the 2nd interview I have participated in with MPR.  The first being in May… again on the subject of raw milk.  Today’s interview focused on the reaction that we have seen from our raw milk customers.  As I told Mark, Carol and I have not seen an increase or decrease of our raw milk sales, nor have we heard any concern from customers with regards the general safety and/or hazards of raw milk.  I told the MPR reporter that many people have yet to hear about the raw milk issue(s) of the Hartmann farm that has been in the news lately.

When asked about how we would describe our milk customers, I also mentioned that our customer base cannot be put into any one group (other than being raw milk drinkers).  I let Mark know that we sell raw milk to educators associated with the University of Minnesota, wealthy area families… as well as those who once drank raw goat milk when they were growing up and have simply missed the taste of the product.  As I mentioned in my previous MPR interview, our family started drinking raw milk due to the complications associated with Asthma that our daughter, Madison, experiences.  Since drinking raw milk, her asthma symptoms have decreased from monthly (sometimes weekly) to less than bi-monthly.  That is ultimately the reason why we got involved with dairy goats.  We thought a cow would produce too much milk for our family… a goat or two would be perfect.  Since we started raising and milking goats, folks have found us and have purchased our raw goat milk.  We may not make much money selling goat milk, but the sale of the milk does help pay for the goat’s feed and care.

As a side-note… goat milk makes some of the best homemade kefir, cheeses and ice creams we have ever tasted.  Carol is getting quite good at making it.  It truly is some of the most delicious products we have ever eaten.  Our family drinks raw milk everyday and we believe we are living a healthier lifestyle because of it.

I think it was our first hot day of the summer.

Knowing it was going to be a tad-bit warm today, I headed to the pasture early, to do some more fencing… I really wanted to get this first long run, north of the creek, done.  I realize it was a Sunday – the day of rest, but I like fencing and haying on Sundays.  It’s so relaxing… usually.  Today was a little like work, but I enjoyed it none-the-less.

Earlier this spring, I tore out some of last year’s temporary, pasture fencing to make way for permanent, high-tensile fencing.  I had all the posts and the bottom wire in place, so running 3 more wires was about all I needed to do yet… that and add a few more insulators on one end.  I did so w/o problem.  By noon, all the posts had the needed insulators and I had another wire in place.  The temp was already in the 80′sF.  When I arrived at the house, I was so thirsty.  I… needed… something… cool… to… drink.  With hydration the only thing on my mind, I barely noticed how warm it was in the house.  Once I recovered my senses, looked at the thermostat on the wall… HUH?  87°F.  And Carol was standing in the thick of it, creating even more heat – she was canning chicken and chicken broth… while doing dishes.  I could also see clothes n the line outside.  Sheesh!

I drank some more Kool-Aid and grabbed a snack before heading back out to the pastures.  I finally finished for the day around 4PM.  I would have finished earlier, but along the creek, 30% of my posts are 4″ wooded posts.   Each wood posts receives 2 staples… so that took awhile.

Why wood posts?  The soil along the creek is much softer than the soil farther in.  I guess I feel the 8′ wood posts, being longer and wider than an average T-post, holds better.  I realize that the untreated, cedar posts will eventually rot, but the security of knowing they won’t be easily moved has some value.  And… not all of the wood posts will fail at the same time, so replacing on or two each year, after 20 years, won’t be such a big deal.

Anyway, that run of fencing is done.  Approx. 2400 ft of 4 strand, high-tensile, fencing was completed and another 2800 ft to go.  I was hot and exhausted… my T-shirt was soaked with sweat… and I had about 3 dozen wood-tics crawling on me and another dozen or so chewing on my flesh.  It was time for a nice cool shower… and some more Kool-Aid.  Carol was still chugging away with her canning, dishes, laundry and now… cheese making.  It seems she also found time to make a strawberry pie (with home-made pie crust).  By this time, the house was hitting 90°+F… It was hot.

As Carol started her last batch of chicken broth, we had some farm visitors.  A local gal and her husband were looking to purchase a few chickens.  I think the wanted them more for aesthetics, but thought a few fresh eggs would be good too.  It turns out, they are raw milk drinkers as well.  They asked if we would be willing to supply them with milk.  Carol let them know that we would be more than willing to do so.  It seems they travel more than 50 miles for their goat milk and would like to buy from a farm nearer to them – we would be about 30 miles closer.

All-in-all, it was a very HOT and productive day.  I’m glad it’s over.

Carol made some Italian Herb Feta Cheese a few days ago from some of the farm’s raw goat milk.  Now that it has aged a few days on the counter, it was time to get it ready for the real aging process.  The cheese is to go into a canning jar with the whey from the cheese.  The whey is the brine for this particular recipe.  It will sit for a month (or more) in the fridge to develop it’s ‘unique’ flavor.  The stuff is quite stinky already.  Like the other Feta cheese Carol made, it smells like wet, dirty socks… yummy right?  I can’t imagine how strong the smell will be after a month, but some say that if it ain’t stinky it ain’t worth eating.

Here is another batch of stinky Feta Cheese

These cheese chunks are waiting to be put in a quart jar for aging.  I really hope we like this stuff when it’s done aging.

For our Palm Sunday brunch, Carol made this good tasting sausage and tator frittata.  I believe Carol mentioned that except for the cheddar cheese, this is an all homegrown dish.  Ingredients include: homemade lamb & pork sausage, frozen peppers, free-range eggs, potatoes, and onions.

Carol made this sausage and potato frittata

 If you want the recipe, feel free to email Carol.

Carol has scraped/cut off the “blooms” on the Feta cheese that she has been making.  It is now in a salt brine where it needs to age 1-4 months.  As she was prepping it for the brine jar she gave me a little taste.  I thought it tasted like a very mild cheddar, but smelled like gym socks.  Austin tasted it as well.  He thought it was mild with a bit of a tangy taste.  Maybe he was tasting the dirty socks aroma. 

Another batch of homemade Feta Cheese in salt brine

As with most of the cheeses Carol makes, this Feta was made with some of the farm’s raw goat milk.

BTW:  The word ‘blooms’ is just a nice way of saying mold.

The air was chilly, but I decided to start a fencing project anyway.  I went out to the south east corner of the property to look at the old line fencing.  It had been there been there forever.  For the most part, the posts are still there, but the old barbed-wire is partially gone or broken.  Because I need to tear-down the fence north of the creek to make way for the new pasture projects, I thought I would reuse that for this SE line fencing.  Reduce, reuse and recycle right? I easily and quickly was able to tear out the top-wire of the one fence, which seems to be high-tensile barbed.  Once rolled, I put it on the ATV and I hauled the wire back to the place… then out to the SE field.  To be honest, that was all I was in the mood to do.  Out in the wind, the temp was a little more chilly than I cared to be in.  Maybe tomorrow, I’ll find myself out there again.

After returning back to the farm site, I decided to work on one of the farm’s tractors.  I knew it needed work because last winter when I was plowing, I had antifreeze/coolant spraying on the windshield of the cab… the thought had been bothering me all winter.  I first thing i did was to fill the radiator with fluid to see if I could locate the leak.  Sure enough coolant came dripping out.  I added some ‘Stop-Leak’ type stuff but I think the hole was too large for the cheap fix to work.  It looks like I’ll have to remove the radiator and have it professionally repaired. I’m guessing that’ll be $100-200+ I’ll never see again.  The thing is, I really need the tractor to be in good operating condition for field work, once the ground dries out.  It’s got to be ready.  Because of the late harvest and the limited time we had for fall tillage, much of the work was left for this spring. Without the ‘big’ tractor, I’m screwed.  I have 40 acres of corn ground that needs to be worked.  I guess the radiator repair bill, whatever it may be, will be cheaper than renting a tractor.

Last night, Carol started to make what she called ‘Farm House Cheddar‘ cheese. Made from some of the farm’s excess goat milk, Carol took a ‘use it or loose it‘ approach to recent cheese making. If we don’t make something out of the milk we will be throwing it out (or feeding it to the pig, poultry or cats). With aspirations of becoming real cheese makers, we thought it best to experiment with some simple cheddar cheese recipes with the milk we’ve been blessed with… Especially since we have some folks interested in our cheese… should we make a few batches.  Madison’s raw-milk science fair project helped get the work out.

Some fresh 'Farmhouse Cheddar' cheese

We left the cheese in the cheese mould, under 48lbs of weight (6 one gallon jugs filled with tap water).  It needs to be there for approx. 12 hrs.  After that, it will need to be exposed to the open air so that it develops a rine.  Then we will seal it (either in cheese wax or a vacuum sealed ‘seal-a-meal’ package).  It will then be aged.

I got lucky.  When I went to remove the radiator of the tractor (the next morning), there was still coolant in the system.  OK.  I then started the tractor to see if it would leak with system pressurized.  To my delight, it didn’t leak.  The next test was to hook-up the disk and see if the radiator will spring a leak with the engine at operating temp.  After 10-15 minutes of discing, everything was still dry – no leaks, no spills, no nothin.  I’m going to leave it for now… hopefully, it will remain ‘repaired’ for spring tillage.

The last couple of days have been cheese making days.  This weekend, Carol made 2 lbs of Mozzarella from some of the farm’s raw goat milk.  She also whipped-up a batch of goat milk cream cheese.  Tonight (Tues) Madison is making her own batch of Mozzarella Cheese.   Madison has decided to make cheese for a school science project.  As you can see from the photo below, there really is no need for fancy equipment.

These are all the supplies and equipment needed to make mozzarella cheese

Madison has learned where rennet comes from and what it does.  For those of you who do not know, natural rennet comes from the stomach of young calves.  It is an enzyeme that thickens milk to keep it from passing through the calf’s system before it can be digested.  We use a liquid organic vegetable rennet for cheese making, which seems to work just fine for our needs.  From one gallon of milk, we get approx. 1 lb of cheese.

On Monday afternoon, Carol & her friend [and natural healer], Kristine, brought daughter Chastiti’ to the clinic for blood work and a routine consult.  Both Carol and Kristine were surprised to how open the doc was to adding some natural medicine to Chas’ program.  In fact, the good doctor gave Carol a hand written recipe for a probotic smoothie.  It is one of the smoothie recipes he makes for his family and can be made with yogurt made at home from the raw milk we get from our dairy goats.

footnote:  Kristine runs a natural healing clinic in Kerkhoven.

It is finally starting to feel like spring around here.  The weather is reaching it’s normal high temps. of 30ºF and beyond.  The creek that runs through the farm has opened up.  And best of all, we haven’t had frozen water pipes in the house for close to a week.  Just a week ago we still had 17″ of snow and now we have about 8″ of the stuff.  The bad part of it all is that the mud is showing up.

In the barn, I installed a small flood light for the outdoor goat & sheep pen (east of the barn).  Now when we want to do a late night baby-check, it will be much easier to do.  Small things can make so much easier.

This morning and tonight, I’ve been helping the neighbors with milking chores  Tonight, Madison went with to help feed baby calves.  While observing some larger cattle she noticed one heifer laying down.  The heifer was in labor and Madison knew it… she kept a good eye in the animal.  When chore was finished, the calf was yet to be born.  We scooted the heifer into the barn for safety sake.  About 9:15, I got a call fro the neighbor – the calf needed to be pulled.  Madison came with.  We put the chains on the calf’s legs and the neighbor and I pulled.  After only 5 minutes of hard pulling a new calf was born.  It was huge.  Since the mother was in the stall we carried the calf to where it’s mother could lick it dry.  This Holstein calf must have weighed 80+ lbs.  It was so much bigger than the normal sized calf that was born last week.  I will be helping with chores Sunday at 5am and then again at 5 pm.

Oh yeah… I nearly forgot.   Carol made approx. 2 lbs of Mozzarella cheese from our farm’s goat milk.  Carol has had some minor problems with some of the Mozzarella recipes out there.  She decided to heat the salt brine water a few degrees warmer and the cheese turned out so much better – it stretched better than it ever has.  It turns out that in some cases, goat cheese needs to be heated at least 2ºF warmer than cow milk (unless the recipe specifies goat milk).