Keep it Real

Soft Raw Goat Cheese

One of the many benefits of taking GNOWFGLINS e-course is learning out to make fresh raw cheese. I was fortunate enough to find a source for affordable local raw goats milk.  After buying 4 gallons worth, I decided it was a good time to make a big batch of soft spreadable cheese.  This is so easy to make!  No temperature taking and no special equipment.  In fact, I just added the cultures straight to cold milk and let it do it's thing.  Then you strain the whey, add some sea salt, and call it cheese!

It's very similar to cream cheese.  We use it to spread on toast, make sour cream and salad dressings. It's just a good, mild cheese that can be incorporated into many dishes.  Plus, you have all the health benefits of raw milk since it wasn't heated.  It will keep for about a week in the fridge.  Since I had used 2 gallons of milk I had more cheese than we could eat in a week.  So I put it in these small mason jars, labeled them, and stored in our big freezer.  The portions are a great size and now I'll have fresh raw cheese for quite awhile!

 

I HIGHLY suggest signing up for Wardeh's e-course.  It's fun, simple, so informative - and now it's open enrollment, work at your own pace, and you pay what you can afford!  She's made it donation - based so that anyone can have access to this very important information.  GO GNOWFGLINS!!

Oh! and what do you think of my new banner up top??  I love it!  It's a small compilation of photos I've taken over the past year.  They represent many of the ways we've incorporated real, traditional, highly nutritious food into our lives.  Lacto fermenting vegetables, raw milk, healthy fats, protein from local pastured animals, and properly prepared grains.  Just to name a few. ;)
 

On my counter

Have I ever mentioned how much I love to grow things?  I do.  I love it.  Always have.  Doesn't matter what it is - animals, plants, babies, food, anything living.  I've always had a fascination with anything living and changing.  'Indoor gardening' has fit in with that fascination quite well.

Here's what I have going at the moment.  From left to right.  

A half gallon of raw goat milk. This milk went straight from goat to cheese. No refrigeration, no heating.  Just bring it home warm and add the mesophilic culture and rennet.  Sits out until it has formed almost like jello, then I strain it through cheesecloth to separate the whey from the cheese.  It's really good and similar to cream cheese.  Fresh raw cheese!

The next half gallon jar is kombucha.  I've had this mother culture since last summer.  Over the winter I let it go months and months and ended up with a kombucha vinegar - which I really liked to use in dressings and as a soaking medium.  I didn't like the taste of kombucha so letting it turn to vinegar worked well for me.  Well, recently I decided to try it again and have found I like it better!  So I've been brewing it once a week and drinking a small glass every day.

The jar next to it is a second fermentation of water kefir.  I added a juiced orange (along with the pulp) and some fresh ginger pieces.  I've been playing around with different flavors and this one smells pretty good!  I'll strain it today or tomorrow and see how it tastes.

Ginger carrots - this is my first time trying this recipe.  Grated organic carrots, grated fresh ginger, whey, and sea salt. Mixed together and packed in a jar.  Let sit at room temp for a few days to ferment. They smell really good and I'm excited to try this.  Can you believe that I'm still eating vegetable ferments from last summer's harvest?  I'm the only one in the house that eats it and it's lasted me this long. Still tastes good!

Next to that is a new brew of water kefir.  When I started the second fermentation of the previous batch, I started a new one brewing.  These grains grow quickly!  I had to take some out and store them in the fridge.  I let it brew for a week to be sure the sugar is mostly eaten up.

And on the end I have pinto beans sprouting.  First I soaked them in whey and warm water for more than 12 hours.  Then I drained and rinsed them in a colander.  I keep them in this over a plate with a towel over the whole thing.  I rinse them twice a day.  They now have little sprouts coming out.  I think today I'll cook them in some of the bone broth I have left from the other day.  Then I'll either use them in a dish right away or freeze them in batches for later use.

On the liver front - still not satisfied with giving up on the liver pate.  So yesterday I made a batch of sourdough crepes and filled them with the pate, an herbed yogurt dressing and some lato fermented kraut.  Rolled them up and put in the fridge for easy grabbing.  I had two of them and they were tolerable!  I think it will help when I don't have to SEE the pate (which looks like something I wouldn't want to eat) and has melded flavors with the dressing and kraut.  Yeah, I'm stubborn.

 

Sour Cream

Who doesn't love sour cream?  It adds a tart creamy smoothness to so many dishes.  There is a way to make sour cream out of just raw milk and some cultures or just letting it sit out or something (can you tell I've never done it?).  I've found a way to have delicious, fresh, raw, probiotic sour cream.  A couple of weeks ago I made chevre.  It comes out like a cream cheese.  I've also been keeping up my kefir - always have a supply of it in the fridge.  So all I do is blend some chevre and kefir till I get the consistency of sour cream.  VIOLA!! Beautiful sour cream!  Now, you're probably thinking - that's a lot of work for sour cream - making raw milk chevre and kefir.  You're right, it would be.  But I already have those things on hand - so if these are the types of dairy products you keep around then give some sour cream a try!

 

This morning it was soooo good on one pastured egg mixed with a tablespoon of kefir, fried into an omelet in coconut oil and topped with my tomato pesto chevre and a side of purple lacto kraut.  mmm!

 

Kefir Peach Yogurt

Eat your heart out yoplait.

I have been wanting to make my own yogurt for quite a while now.  I've read and read and read all the different methods, techniques, results, and how to's.  They've all left me feeling like yogurt making wasn't for me.  One of my biggest concerns was heating my lovely raw milk and killing some of the good things I loved about my raw milk.  I did order a 'raw milk' yogurt culture from Cultures for Health.  Gave it a shot once and it didn't really turn out.

What I HAVE been very successful with is my kefir making.  For the past few months I've been very faithful in tending to my kefir each night and incorporating some into my diet everyday.  I love it.  So I decided to use my kefir to make my own fruit 'yogurt'.  Now, I'm not sure it would technically be considered yogurt, but that's what I'm calling it.

First I strained about 64 oz of raw cow's milk kefir by lining a colander with unbleached muslin, putting that over a bowl and pouring the kefir in.  Once that strained a bit I was able to gather up the corners, clip them together and rig it up in my kitchen to continue straining.  I let it drip for about 8 hours and got about a quart of whey from it.  I scraped the kefir cheese off of the cloth and put it in the fridge.

Today I took 3 ripe peaches, slightly peeled (some didn't come off), pitted and put them in the blender. Add 1/2 cup of canned whole coconut milk and six drops of liquid stevia.  Blend that up till it's a smooth puree.  Then I added in all the kefir cheese, which was about 2 cups.  Blend that for another very smooth consistency.  I wanted some chunk to my yogurt so I took another ripe peach and chopped it into small pieces.  Mix that in with the yogurt.  Divide into eight single serve dishes and refrigerate. 

It is SO good!  Smooth, creamy, fruity, not to tart, raw, probiotic and delicious!!!!  I'm so happy that I found a way to enjoy yogurt again.  And this is a yogurt I can feel good about.  I'm just imagining all the fruity possibilities.

So, here are the ingredients to yoplaits original peach yogurt:

Cultured Pasteurized Grade A Lowfat Fat Milk, Sugar, Peaches, Modified Cornstarch, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Nonfat Milk, Kosher Gelatin, Natural Flavor, Citric Acid, Tricalcium Phosphate, Pectin, Colored With Annatto Extract, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3.

Here are the ingredients to my kefir peach yogurt:

Raw milk kefir, peaches, coconut milk, stevia.

YEAH BABY!!!

This post is part of REAL FOOD WEDNESDAY.

Why Raw Milk?

Real Milk

I had been searching for a source of raw milk in our area for a little while.  I finally found it at Saint John's Organic Farm in Emmett, ID.  I was thrilled!!  It's a family owned and operated grass fed beef and dairy farm.  I spoke with the husband and asked if we could come take a look at his farm and possibly buy some milk from them.  He happily agreed and welcomed us to come anytime.  When we arrived we met Susan, his wife.  She was as nice and humble as could be.  She showed us around and told us about their farm and the milk.  I expressed interest in the beef and she gave me a sample of soup bones and a small sirloin.  Then she also offered us a 'sample' of milk - a two and half gallon bag!  We couldn't leave without giving her something, so we offered her some cash for the samples and took our gold home.

Susan recommended that you not keep the milk in the plastic bag, but rather transfer it to glass jars.  Here it is all pretty in it's jars. After sitting in the fridge for several hours the cream will separate and float to the top. :)

Here I am taking my first taste of raw, real milk.  Yes, it was a monumental moment.  It had a rather earthy, grassy? taste to it.  Good, but different.  I quickly got used to it.  My 11 yo daughter loved it too. All in all - no complaints from anyone and I was in love.

I've made ice cream twice now with the milk and cream.  The first batch was this cherry pecan ice cream.  I didn't have the hang of separating the cream from the milk yet, so this is probably half cream and half milk.  It was really good and tasted like REAL ice cream!  The second batch was with all cream - 2 cups worth.  Definitely a smoother, creamier texture and so delicious!

I also ordered some milk kefir grains from Cultures for Health.  So, for about a week now I've been making kefir.  It's not something I've acquired a taste for straight, but it makes outstanding green smoothies!  I've been making one every morning with the previous days kefir.  What's in it?  Kefir, coconut oil, coconut milk, raw egg yolk, spinach, banana, cherries, blueberries and raw honey.

Today we picked up our third bag of milk.  I am hooked.  I've decided that I am going to eliminate protein powders from diet.  Right now I am replacing it with these kefir smoothies.  So far so good!