Karen GoatKeeper loves to write. Her books include picture books, novels and nonfiction for science activity books and nature books. A recent inclusion are science teaching units.
The coming year has goals for two new novels, a picture book and some books of personal essays. This is ambitious and ignores time constraints.
She lives in the Missouri Ozarks with her small herd of Nubian dairy goats. The Ozarks provides the inspiration and setting for most of her books.
Reading about edible wild plants is one thing. Doing a wild edible search is quite another, especially during an Ozark summer.
Heat Can Be Deadly
Many parts of the country are seeing triple digit temperatures. The Ozarks hasn’t so far. However, the Ozarks has seen 90 degrees plus complicated with humidities in the 70% and more range. This makes a deadly combination for anyone out in the sun too long.
I have had some milder cases of heat stroke and it is no joke. Going out walking in the summer sun is not on my agenda.
Wild cherry is a tree which would be a problem for my Carduans. However, if you can beat the birds and other creatures to the fruit, it is rather tasty when it is fully ripe. This sets it apart from some of the other wild fruits like wild plums and wild grapes, both very sour. other Ozark wild fruits that taste all right are gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries and elderberries.
Thunderstorms
Another facet of Ozark summer weather are the thunderstorms. Usually I hear thunder off in the distance. That is warning to get ready for the goats to come in and to go inside myself.
However, there were three plants up on the hill I needed pictures of. That particular hike takes about 30 to 40 minutes. The thunder was far away. I set out.
Halfway through the hike, just before I got to the top of the hill, lightning lit up the sky and thunder cracked and rolled over me. The camera went in the plastic bags I carried in case I found chanterelle mushrooms. I backed up against a leafy tree. The rain began.
There are several such storms in The Carduan Chronicles: Ship Nineteen. Up to now my descriptions have been from observations done while sheltering in the house or barn. Standing outside under a tree is very different.
I did go back down the hill to the house. Yes, I was drenched.
Mushrooms appear at various times in the Ozarks. Morels in the spring. Chanterelles in the summer. Puffballs in the fall. And lots of others, safe and unsafe wild edibles. Like with all wild edibles, you have to identify it for sure before taste testing.
My Wild Edible Search
After the storm, I went back up the hill. The wild cherry fruit was ripe. Although obtaining it would be challenging for the Carduans, they are rather tasty. These are quite unlike the wild plums which are very sour.
My wild edible search has also found hog peanut and ground nut. These would be much more accessible for the Carduans. I did find ground plum in the spring, but didn’t taste it. Elderberries will be ripe soon.
This wild edible search is getting to be interesting.
It’s getting hard to keep going on my Ship Nineteen draft as I know it needs major work again. The plus side of continuing is having a better draft of what the Carduans are doing. The negative side is how much is missing, like foraging wild edibles.
What the Carduans Accomplish
There are several major problems these survivors face. One is the need for shelter. For now, since there are so few of them, they can live in the ship and use the ledge they discovered.
Another is defense against the numerous large predators. The Carduans are snack size for coyotes, foxes, bobcats and large snakes. They are edibles for smaller creatures like raccoons, hawks and owls.
These predators are avoided as much as possible. When necessary, the Carduans have discovered a defensive weapon.
Food is another issue. For now they can hunt, fish and forage. Winter will return. They must be ready with stored food.
I know someone who likes red clover flower tea. He gathers the flower heads, dries them and then brews tea. I’ve tasted a few flowers. They have a quick bit of sweet followed by a bit of spice. The Carduans love their morning coffee, but must find a new drink. Will this work?
Foraging Wild Edibles
Over the years I’ve learned about a number of wild plants good to eat. They include lamb’s quarters, dock, plantains, chicory, dandelions and chickweed. Some are more palatable than others.
These can’t be the wild foods the Carduans eat. Why not? Because these are mostly introduced plants that grow near human habitations, not out in the ravines and abandoned pastures.
What does grow out there? I’ve photographed lots of plants growing out in the wilder areas, but don’t know which are edible or what they can be used for.
Wild plant foraging begins early in the spring. Spicebush blooms early with spicy flowers. Later the leaves are spicy eating too. The Carduans do discover these flowers and enjoy eating them, the ones they can reach.
Doing Research
Samuel Thayer lives foraging wild edibles and has several books out about foraging. The biggest drawback is his location, far north of the Ozarks. Some of the plants, like wild rice, just won’t be found where the Carduans are.
Even so, “Forager’s Harvest” has many useful items in it. One is preparing wild grains. And some of the plants are found here too.
That leaves two items. One is finding plants accessible to the Carduans who are very small. The other is finding some of these plants and tasting them so I can give descriptions in the novel.
I will admit I probably over planted tomatoes. Every year I vow to cut back. And every year I end up with oodles of tomatoes.
Reasons to Cut Back
Two people can only eat so many tomatoes. Even the chickens and the wildlife can get overwhelmed by oodles of tomatoes.
Tomatoes take a lot of water. Ozark summers are often dry and I don’t have a convenient hose.
Tomatoes are a popular sales item for both sellers and buyers at the Farmers Market. However, lots go home again.
Paste tomatoes have less water in them. I like the flavor of the Speckled Roman paste tomatoes. It is an indeterminate tomato, an heirloom, and prolific. The tomatoes are not uniform, but tend to be up to 7 inches long and 1 1/2 inches in diameter. This year I’m getting lots of shorter, but stouter ones. I slice them into rounds to cook them up for sauce or placing on cream cheese pizza.
Reasons For Growing So Many Tomatoes
My garden typically has three main types of tomatoes: red, yellow and paste. These are started from seed as I like varieties not commonly available.
There are also some purchased tomatoes as these will bear sooner. And a couple of cherry tomatoes are nice for snacks. One is by the house. The other is in the garden.
Things happen to gardens. Groundhogs. Chipmunks. Wood rats. Birds. Insects. Disease. Having a few more plants than necessary is insurance against total loss.
This is an extra tomato for me this year. These tomatoes are huge with the characteristic oxheart shape. The vines are indeterminate and prolific. I find the taste a bit bland. The tomatoes seem to bruise easily.
What To Do With Oodles of Tomatoes
All dinner menus are now planned with tomatoes included. Sliced. Salads. Enchiladas. Spaghetti.
More tomatoes end up as sauce, broth and frozen. A few years back I tried freezing plain nice tomatoes. These are great as thawing them makes the skins slide off. If I’m doing chili, I only want one or two, not a bag of sauce.
When I make tomato sauce, I read the directions to boil skinned tomatoes down for hours until they are a thick sauce. First, I’m lousy at skinning tomatoes. Second, I hate spending that much time boiling off water. (Tomatoes are 95% water, more than watermelon at 92%. See the Pumpkin Project.)
My sauce is plain tomatoes, trimmed and cut into chunks, dropped into a large pot and simmered until soft mush. Then I use a colander to separate the pulp from the liquid tomato broth.
The liquid is frozen as broth. The pulp is pureed in the blender, then frozen. When I thaw these out, I can add the appropriate herbs, spices and salt for the recipe I am making.
Even so, this is a great tomato year. My garden is happily producing oodles of tomatoes. I hope it lasts to frost and beyond stored in the pantry and freezer.
People seem to love showing off things and animals. Goats are no exception which means there are goat shows.
These events occur in Dora’s Story. Emily’s mother wants the recognition of winning them. The girls want to take part as members of their 4-H club. There are two big shows close to them and they attend both.
This is an old picture from the first Arkansas state goat show in 1981. The class is for Nubian doelings. Note the whites then the official wear for those showing goats.
Why Have Goat Shows?
I only took my goats to the local county shows. I led a couple of 4-H goat Projects and the shows were part of this.
We held the shows for several reasons. One was for the members to show off their goats. More importantly the judges could help them recognize the strong and weak points of their goats.
The public was the other big reason for holding these little shows. Many people know little about goats and many times what they know is wrong.
This isn’t their fault. Goats are fun to make fun of. Brush goats do tend to have long goatees and big horns. Goats do butt each other and other things. Horns are a great way to tear delicious bark off of trees.
Buck goats (male goats in the dairy goat world) do reek during mating season. Does (female goats in the dairy goat world) do not.
If produced properly, goat milk tastes good. It is also better balanced for human consumption than cow’s milk.
Phelps County Fair has a goat show. Back around 2006 most of the goats shown were dairy goats. This is an Oberhasli sometimes called a Swiss Alpine. Note the show clip and how the goat is set up with front feet across from each other, back feet set directly under the tail and the collar used to keep the goat’s head up, but not straining.
The shows in this novel are much bigger shows. I have attended several of these bigger shows as a spectator.
These shows have several goat breeds and several classes for each breed. There are showmanship classes for young goat owners.
In plotting these shows for the novel, I had to list all of the classes, all of the goats in each of the classes and the names and ages of the owners of these goats. This took at least a page of notes.
To complicate this, the same shows occur annually. They show up more than once in the novel. That meant aging the owners and their goats, adding some new owners and goats.
Much of this material was not used in the novel. Emily and her sister showed Nubians and grades only. But they did talk to many of the other owners.
Novel background notes are like that. The notes make writing the novel easier and the result better. But that doesn’t mean all of the notes appear in the novel.
Making feta goat cheese hasn’t been on my list of things to do for years. It wasn’t supposed to be on the list now.
There has been a special request. I went hunting for my recipe and dredging my memory for how to make this cheese.
Special Supplies
I’ve made several changes in the regular feta recipes I’ve read. The set curds do need to have the whey pressed out. This can be with a cheese press. I use my hands and a colander.
There is a special feta cheese starter. I’ve never used it. Instead I will use buttermilk from the market. It works well for making feta goat cheese, although it changes the flavor a little.
The other supplies are the same as for other cheeses I make: a whisk, a long spatula, a stirring spoon, a stainless steel pot, stainless steel colander, vegetable rennet. Canning salt is used too, but as a brine. I dump a couple of cups of salt into a gallon jug and fill it with water. This is enough for two or three batches of cheese.
My Recipe
My pot holds about a gallon and a half of milk, so that is how much I use. This can be fresh or from the day before. Either way, the milk is warmed to 86 degrees. The heat is turned off.
Then a quarter cup of buttermilk is whisked into the milk. The lid is put on and the mixture is allowed to sit for an hour.
Rennet is whisked in. The curd is allowed to set up and should take about half an hour.
The curd is cut as for mozzarella: across both ways and diagonal both ways, and allowed to set for five minutes. Now the curd is gently stirred for fifteen minutes. After the first five, time really drags.
This stirring is important as it separates the curds and whey. You will see the curds shrink in size.
Now the colander comes into play to drain the whey from the curds. The curds should be firm enough to roll the colander to drain the whey as much as possible. Press the curds into a cake.
It takes some time to cut the feta into cubes, but the cubes soak up the brine better than a big piece. However, the cubes like being in one lump and will stick together while sitting in the brine. They are broken apart again while running cold water over them to wash off the brine. They will continue to ooze whey and brine even after being washed and drained. Just dump the liquid out of the container you put the cheese into.
Salting the Cheese
Turn the curd mass out onto a plate. The mass is cut into roughly half inch cubes. These are put into a bowl. More whey will come out. Keep dumping it to avoid a flooded counter.
Pour brine over the pile of cubes. Set the plate on top of the bowl. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for several hours.
Supposedly the time spent in the brine doesn’t matter. I prefer to get the cubes out after three to four hours.
Dump the cubes into the colander. Rinse them with cold water. Drain the water and refrigerate the cubes of feta, ready to use.
Making feta goat cheese isn’t hard. It is time consuming. I find it too salty for my taste which is why I don’t usually make it.
There are lots of recipes around for making mozzarella goat cheese. The one I’ve come up with works well for me.
One of the important things to remember is to start with milk a day or two old and cold in the refrigerator. This cheese likes to be slightly acid and this seems to do the trick.
It is possible to add a bit of citric acid to get that acidity. I’ve done that. It’s hard to judge how much to add and too much will make the cheese very rubbery.
Supplies Needed
When I get ready for making mozzarella goat cheese, I put my stainless steel pot on the stove and fill it with milk. This cheese works best for at least a gallon of milk. Any more I use a gallon and a half, but have worked with two gallons. More than two gallons becomes a problem for me later on.
Turning the stove on low to warm the milk, I set out a Pyrex bowl with a stainless steel colander sitting in it. Next to that is a Pyrex loaf pan to put the finished cheese in.
There is a stainless steel flat canning ladle, a stainless steel flat spatula, a whisk and a cheese thermometer. I use vegetable rennet to set the curd and canning salt.
Surrounded by lots of goat information and puzzles are recipes for making cheese and other things from goat milk as well as how to cook chevon (goat meat).
Making the Cheese
The milk is heated to 86 degrees. Don’t get more than a degree sloppy with this. Turn off the heat. Whisk in enough rennet to set the curd in about 30 minutes. Put the lid on and wait.
Once the curd is set, use the spatula to cut the curd. First make long cuts every quarter to half inch one way. Next make long cuts across the first ones to make columns. Last use the spatula at an angle to cut the columns first one way, then the other.
The idea is to break the curd up into smaller pieces to make it easier to get the whey out.
Let the cut curd sit for 5 minutes. Then sprinkle canning salt over the top of the curds using a tablespoon per half gallon of milk.
Start slowly heating the curd. Gently stir the curd to mix in the salt and shift the curds from the bottom of the pan to the top. Do this slowly so you don’t break the curds into lots of tiny pieces.
Pictures were on the agenda as I set up to make this week’s batch of mozzarella cheese. The pictures didn’t get taken. And the cheese started disappearing. The camera finally arrived before the last bit of cheese got eaten.
Setting the Cheese
Let the curds heat. Mix the curds every 5 minutes or so to spread the heat more evenly. The curds will shrink as they release whey. They will change and toughen.
The original directions said to heat the curds to 120 degrees. I rarely get that hot. I watch the curds until they get a rubbery, melted look to them.
Now lift the curds out of the whey into the colander. The curds from two gallons of milk fill my colander. Leave the whey heating on the stove.
Rinse your hands in cold water even if you are wearing gloves. Turn the curds in the colander to drain more whey out. I empty whey back into the pot as I go.
Lift the mass up and it should stretch down toward the colander draining more whey. Fold it and let it stretch again several times. (If it won’t stretch, put the mass into the hot whey to get hotter so it will stretch.)
Press the cheese into the loaf pan or whatever mold you are using. I let it cool a bit on the counter before covering and refrigerating it.
It was September and I wanted a story line to write in November when the idea came. The plot would revolve around a dairy goat moving between several different owners. Then I began creating the Dora’s Story characters.
After writing a number of straight plotline novels, this was very different. There was the novel plotline. Yet each of the six parts had a plotline for itself and as part of the novel one. It involved several goat shows and each of these changed as the participants got older. It took over a year to get all of it right.
Who Are They?
From the time my first goat, Jennifer, was born, I’ve met many people with goats. Others I’ve heard of. These were the beginnings of my Dora’s Story characters.
The goat would come from a small time breeder. Her first owner would be Emily. Why would this young girl get a goat? Why would she give up her goat?
This brought in her mother and sister. For the girls, the goats were 4-H projects and pets. The mother wanted the prestige of purebred goats and Dora was a grade goat.
Once sold, Dora went through several owners. Each was a composite of people. One was a bad owner. Another was ill. Finally Dora ends up with a young boy.
Going In Circles
Emily was devastated when Dora was sold. Her dream was to find Dora again. In the original draft, she does.
As years pass, people change. Emily grew up. So did Dora.
Emily wanted to get Dora back as though this would make everything like it was. Long ago I learned you can’t go back except in memories. Such an ending would not be at all realistic.
Yet, Emily did need to find Dora again. But she needed to find her beloved goat in a new time, under the new conditions.
Dora’s Story Characters
Each step of the way, Dora is a possible way to the future for each owner. Some take advantage of this. Some don’t.
We are often blind to or afraid of opportunities that come our way. They pass us by. When it is too late, we realize we went past them, now regretting it.
Entering writing contests is not my favorite thing to do. That doesn’t keep me from looking at them.
There are lots of these contests. Many have nice prizes. I know writers who do enter them and get to put “Award Winning” on their book.
Reasons For Contests
There seems to be lots of different reasons for writing contests. Publishers use them as a way to find books they might like to publish. These usually want a complete manuscript.
Writer sites are expensive to operate. They can hold contests as a way to raise funds.
Writer’s Digest magazine holds numerous contests. They seem to both promote writers and raise interest in subscribing to the magazine. Attending their writers’ conference is one of the big prizes.
Tempting Prizes
My writing budget always seems to be slim. That makes cash prizes very tempting.
Attending a conference isn’t possible for me. I self publish and, although being traditionally published is tempting, don’t really expect to go that route.
Choosing Contests
Entering writing contests can be a way for me to support a writing group. That is the main reason I do enter a contest.
My only two at this time are NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) and Arts Rolla. The first is mostly a way to write my way through a draft and isn’t a formal contest. There are supporting sponsors who offer prizes for those who meet their goals.
The latter is a local fine arts group. When I was part of a local writer’s group, now disbanded, I met many of the people involved with the group. It is an important local group.
Now I’m considering another contest. It’s put on as a money raiser for an online group. I’m new to the group and want to become more a part of it.
Facing Reality
Entering writing contests is not something I do expecting to win. When Arts Rolla awarded the first chapter of The Carduan Chronicles second place, I was shocked.
This new contest is for the first page of an unpublished novel. I have three to choose from. I would like to help support this group Great Gutsy Novelists. Are any of them good enough?
Dairy goats giving milk must be milked out regularly or they will stop giving milk. As the refrigerator fills with milk, the question is what to do with this milk. Making vinegar set ricotta cheese is one possibility.
This cheese is considered to be a good beginner’s cheese. It takes few ingredients, is forgiving of sloppy temperatures and can be used in lots of ways.
Cheese Making Equipment
Any cheese makes whey which quickly becomes acidic. A stainless steel stock pot is important. I use a two gallon pot. When I made more kinds of cheese in larger quantities, I had a six gallon pot.
If the pot has bolt heads inside the pot, the milk level should always be below them as they are not stainless steel. The pot must have a lid.
A cheese thermometer is a must. Although making vinegar set ricotta cheese has a wide temperature range, most cheeses have a specific setting temperature. Cheese temperatures range from 70 to 200 degrees.
For making vinegar set ricotta cheese my utensils include a stainless steel whisk, a measuring cup, plastic or glass, and a stainless steel colander. The white vinegar comes from the market.
Making Vinegar Set Ricotta Cheese
Whisking the vinegar into the hot milk causes the curds to coagulate and separate from the whey. This can take a minute. Just keep stirring. It makes the mixture look lumpy. If the curds are very fine, it will look grainy.
This is a forgiving cheese as I’ve said. The milk can come straight in from the milk room and be strained into the pot. It can be cold milk from the refrigerator.
Fill your pot and slowly heat it. It’s a good idea to keep the lid on so the milk doesn’t skin as it gets hot.
Every so often use the whisk to stir the milk so it heats more evenly. Check the temperature each time. You want the milk to reach 175 to 185 degrees.
Once the milk is hot, whisk in the vinegar. I find a half cup per gallon works for me. This, too, is lenient. You can add a bit more to set the milk harder.
You should see the milk turn grainy as the vinegar and milk mix. The grains can vary in size from tiny to quarter inch or larger. They stick to the whisk so you can see them. You should see the milk separate into curds and whey.
When I made lemon cheesecake from the cheese, I set the milk with lemon juice. It takes more than the vinegar and has a lower yield.
Turn off the heat. Put the lid on the pot. Let the pot sit and cool down.
Unlike many cheeses, the amount of milk used for vinegar set ricotta cheese is highly variable. As I wanted new pictures for this post, I made a big saucepan of cheese to add to the cheese I made a couple of days ago to make enchiladas. Just adjust the amount of vinegar added. This is a very bland cheese so added spices and herbs really dress it up to suit whatever recipe you are making. For the enchiladas I added chopped garlic chives. Chopped onion and peppers work well too. I prefer using the vinegar set ricotta cheese to cream cheese in most recipes as I can add flavors to it easily. It can be used like cottage cheese. This is a very versatile cheese.
Rescuing Your Cheese
The curds settle into a soft mass. Use the colander to separate the curds and whey. You can keep the whey to use for pasta or even feed your goats. You can water the grass.
If the curds are very fine, line the colander with nylon netting. I prefer this to cheesecloth as the weave is fixed and it is very easy to wash. The small curds drain very slowly and the resulting cheese will spoil faster.
Larger curds can be rolled around in the colander to drain out as much of the whey as you can.
Either way, refrigerate the curds. Then start planning those lasagnas, quiches, cheesecakes and more to use up your goat cheese.
There are more cheese recipes in “Goat Games”. Pumpkin cheesecake is one of the recipes in “The Pumpkin Project”.
Three kids are sold and gone. The two wethers and two bucks are left and still gorging on milk. But there is enough leftover now and it’s time for cheese again.
As with so many things, I no longer do a lot of cheese or kinds of cheese. Every Monday I do a small batch of a mozzarella type. Occasionally I do the vinegar set ricotta
Milk Is the Beginning
Most cheese directions begin in the kitchen. I prefer to start in the milk room as cheese actually begins with milk.
Ozark summers bring warm mornings. These in turn sour milk. This does not make good cheese or table milk for that matter.
Some years back I tried to come up with a way for cool my milk before it even made it into the kitchen. This matters as warm milk takes a long time to cool down in the refrigerator and makes it work harder, not a good thing with older refrigerators in a hot kitchen.
My solution was to freeze a juice bottle of water. This is placed in the milk tote when I go out. The warm milk cools a lot as the ice melts inside the bottle.
When you try this, remember water expands about ten percent when it freezes, so leave room in the bottle. Use a thicker plastic juice bottle, 20 ounce. Tighten the lid securely.
It’s easy to think cheese recipes only matter in the kitchen. Cheese actually begins in the barn. My hard working (Ha!) Nubian does come in at milking time to gobble up their grain and other treats. Pieces of apple, corn husks, lettuce leaves and other things are appreciated. Pumpkin and squash pieces are big favorites. In return I get milk from which I can make cheese.
Pasteurizing
I made this mistake once. My cheese never set. If you do pasteurize, you will need starters for the milk to replace what the heat killed.
My cheese is made from raw milk. Yes, raw milk can carry diseases. However, I know my goats and don’t use milk from goats feeling ill.
Another check is how long the milk stays good in the refrigerator. Mine stays good for over a week. I keep my equipment clean, my glass bottles clean and put the milk up as soon as I get in from the milk room.
Now It’s Time for Cheese Again
Next week I’ll post about making fresh milk ricotta. I don’t make big batches any more so I’ll start with three quarts of fresh milk, just in from the milk room.
