~waving from the mountains of northern georgia...~

[shadddup]

In researching how to make homemade cheeses, I found y'alls forum and just joined...

I have a small farm that consists of Nubian goats (for dairy), Buff Orpingtons (for eggs), turkeys (for meat), Angus cattle (for meat), a mare to whisk me off to parts unknown and a few Kangals and Anatolians to protect it all.

I'm a chef by trade and my desire to grow foods from their original, natural foundations, is what prompted me to move a few years ago from Miami to these mountains.  I have had goats for about 1 1/2 years...I started out with Saanans and switched to the Nubians, and am now ready to learn how to make cheeses.

In my research, I'm seeing that making a quality product requires many things...equipment, product and patience lol.  I'm hoping that by jumping into the fray with y'all that I'll sidestep a few (or alot) mistakes and achieve my goals more gracefully lol.

I have a zillon questions so please be patient with me.


Shad.

[FarmerJd]

Welcome aboard! This is a great group and I have just joined myself recently. I actually take my family to north Georgia each October at the end of the month for the apples in Ellijay and a yearly camping trip. We have been going every year for the past 10 years I think. We bring home about 15 bushels of apples and put them up for the year. I am always amazed at how beautiful it is. Good luck with the cheese making!

[Cheese Head]

Hi Shad and welcome to the forum, always good to have a Chef here!

Have fun with your new adventure!

[shadddup]

I actually take my family to north Georgia each October at the end of the month for the apples in Ellijay and a yearly camping trip. We have been going every year for the past 10 years I think. We bring home about 15 bushels of apples and put them up for the year.

Yes, the apple festival will be going in another week or two I think.  I'm up in the Blue Ridge area (a little north of Ellijay), but I plan on getting a bunch of apples too.  I think last year I did about 200-300lbs...applesauce, apple pie filling, apple butter, spiced apples, apples apples apples lol.

I think I'll wait to get my apples till I get my new baby pigs next week.  The peels/cores will be great slop for the little piglets I'll be raising.

[FarmerJd]

Yea the pigs here get all the leftovers here too: Colostrum from the first milkings, watermelon rinds, old squash, tomato peels, and all the whey. You just have to be careful as they get older because the scraps produce a very different quality of meat than corn and protein. I have a good friend at one of the apple houses on 52 and we always bring home a ton of seconds. My kids love the apple butter from fuji apples the best.

[DeejayDebi]

Welcome aboard Shad. As you've een we have plenty of diversity here and some wonderful people to. You've come to the right place.

[zenith1]

welcome to the forum Shad! Fire away with the questions. Everyone here is chomping at the bit to pass along whatever knowledge that they have amassed. And a good question is sure to raise a lot of debate here-all to the betterment of cheesemaking.

[shadddup]

Yea the pigs here get all the leftovers here too: Colostrum from the first milkings, watermelon rinds, old squash, tomato peels, and all the whey. You just have to be careful as they get older because the scraps produce a very different quality of meat than corn and protein. I have a good friend at one of the apple houses on 52 and we always bring home a ton of seconds. My kids love the apple butter from fuji apples the best.

Now that's very interesting information FJd about feeding the pigs...I'd be interested in hearing more details about that.  I would have never thought about the colostrum and whey.  Unfortunately, my does won't kid out till the spring so I'll be too late to feed the pigs that but I can freeze the colustrum and use it on the next batch of piglets I get. The man that is getting the pigs for him and me (3 for him, 2 for me) was saying that the pigs he just butchered last month were a little fatty.  I asked him what the solution to that was, and he said 'more protein', and also that genetics was probably involved too.

I get my apples on route 52 also...I wonder if we go to the same place lol.  I always do a blend of apples when I'm making different products.  I usually do the mutzu, fuji and golden delicious apples together to make apple sauce and apple butter.  I usually do the granny smiths along with the mutzu's for the pie filling.  For me, using a blend of apples in the different products adds depth and flavor not found within just one apple variety.

Anyway, thanks for the generous and kind welcome from everyone.

[pamaples]

Yes, the apple festival will be going in another week or two I think.  I'm up in the Blue Ridge area (a little north of Ellijay), but I plan on getting a bunch of apples too.  I think last year I did about 200-300lbs...applesauce, apple pie filling, apple butter, spiced apples, apples apples apples lol.

Yeah, good apples are hard to come by out here in the desert. They aren't right; they just don't keep well. You can't just wrap them in paper and stow them in the root cellar. It may be the one thing I miss about living back east. I only put up a bushell any more since the kids have grown but we used to do a lot more. Like you; apples every way imaginable. (I haven't made apple butter is a coon's age!)  I am drying a half a bushell right now in the warm NM sunshine.

Johnathans are my all-time favorite for pies. Shall I post my 3 time blue ribbon winning pie recipe?

[FarmerJd]

Mack Aaron's apple house is our pick. Great folks. I am sure you are right about the mixing of apples. We did a comparison one year of all the different types in apple butter and you could honestly tell major differences even in consistency. Since then we do mix and match some but fuji apple butter reigns! Gold Del. apple sauce and granny smith apple tart filling are 2 more favs.

On the pig fattening, I feed corn and a 40% protein supplement after they get up past about 30 lbs. if you are just going to put them all in sausage it is not as important what you feed them but for the shoulders hams and pork loins- major difference! I grew up raising them commercially and butchering 2- 5 every year for the freezer too and I can attest to this personally.

Pam, the drying apples is one thing I don't do but wish I was set up for. And definitely share the recipe!!!!

[Sailor Con Queso]

Dehydrators are pretty cheap on E-Bay. Our Excalibur runs constantly this time of year. Apples, tomatos, peppers,.....

AND... it's a great warm place to make yogurt.

[pamaples]

Oooo! that would be a great place to make yogurt! However, I am using the sun, (we got a lot of that out here), and plastic window screen with a layer of cheese cloth below the apples and one covering them. I dry a lot of things and right now all the rest of my screens are filled with red hot chili peppers. Mmm, I can almost smell the enchiladas!

I hear that the garden master dehydrator is the very best, coming from a woman who dries fruit year round.

I will post the recipe over in the recipe section. After 3 years at the county fair they politely asked me not to bring it next year..... give someone else a chance.

[DeejayDebi]

Well Pam that sounds like quite the compliment although it does kind of put a damper on competition.

Love the solar dehydrator!

[Sailor Con Queso]

We air dry during the dead of summer, but by the time Fall harvest season hits, the weather is too unpredictable. We have wheelbarrow loads of grapes around Labor Day every year. Need to figured out how to make raisins.

[DeejayDebi]

Sailor -

Rasins are easy. wash them in the sink real well to get rid of any buggies.
Throw them in a pot of boiling water until the skin slits.
Drain them well on paper towels.
Put them in on a covered rack in the sun or in the oven at about 160°F for a few hours.

The dehydrator will work also but they are usually between 90 and 130°F so it may take e bit longer.