Isn’t this pretty? I normally do not blog about home food production much (other people do a better job), but I get a sense of pride when our meals are made with food we grew ourselves. It happens more often with my husband’s meals because he’s a meat, potatoes and veggie kind of a guy so fairly often his entire meal (minus oil and spices) is from our place. But I have been a vegetarian since I was a teenage so for my protein source I often have something made out of a bean (pinto, soy, black) or fish. But our eggs and milk come in handy, and tonight I harvested the first swiss chard of the year (remember our cool wet spring/summer- I am only now getting chard!). I love swiss chard, by the way. It grows well here and well into the winter. The slugs leave it alone, and it is versatile. You can use it like lettuce, like spinach or like greens. I have been saving a recipe ripped out of my Sunset magazine subscription (thanks Gramma and Grampa!) for Swiss Chard and Sausage Frittata. We have not been getting many eggs from our aging chickens though so I ran out to the barn for a second time and found enough fresh chicken and duck eggs to complete the recipe. The sausage and red peppers are not ours (the Italian sausage is thanks to Tofurky), but most of the rest is. I had it with our home made hard cider. And it is so good!
And speaking of home food production, my cheese making experience is going well. Here’s the goat milk cheddar cheese being pressed in our sink.
(And yes, that’s a dumbbell and a sock machine weight.)
And here’s the home dairy in action. On the right is sheep milk yogurt I made with the leftover sheep’s milk. And it is SO good, very creamy.
Here’s the herbed sheep milk soft cheese. I used oregano/thyme, rosemary, pepper and just salt for the various flavors. And yes, the herbs are ours.
Now I just need to eat it in the next 10 days!
And here’s hopefully the last salting of the goat’s milk cheddar cheese before I wax it tomorrow.
I am supposed to let it age up to 12 weeks. We’ll see if it lasts that long!
Boy that cheese must taste so fresh and delicious…yummy especially with the fresh herbs!
Thanks Jody. I look forward to eating it. Hopefulyl it is as good as it looks.
It ALL looks yummy — and impressive! I didn’t realize you’re a vegetarian, too, and from the same age.
Thanks Michelle. I am a long standing vegetarian for animal welfare reasons. So now I try occationally to eat some of our meat but I just don’t like it, after so long.
Wow, that looks DELICIOUS!. Can I come to YOUR house for dinner??? I admire you for raising your own food. I just can’t seem to do that here, for various reasons, but I wish I could. My hat’s off to you!
Jackie
Thanks Jackie. You can come over for dinner any time. It’s a struggle here sometimes with the veggies, not so much the fruit and critters. It is obviously harder to garden where you are.
I hear you on the not liking it anymore. I became a vegetarian as a teenager, and once in a great while since then I’ve tried something and no matter how good it smells, it TASTES terrible!
SO I am not alone! I know our animals are raised well, and it seems silly to buy Tofurky when there’s lots of good meat here. I like the smell of it but don’t like the taste and texture. I will eat some stuff with a little meat in it, like split pea soup. As long as there are no sizable chunks. Weird huh?
I too have always been funny when it comes to meat. I never eat beef or pork (unless it’s finely diced ham in a toasted western) and occasionally eat a bit of grilled or roasted chicken/turkey breast. The smell of hamburger is disgusting I think.
It’s good to hear about others with peculiar (compared to American society) ideas about eating meat. It’s funny though, I love the smell of cooking hamburger and take a bite here and there, but eating chicken would be really hard for me.