Fun at the Winter Market!

It's been a while since I wrote a post! I had a really great time selling cheese making kits at the local farmers' market with my 4H club this summer. I also did pretty well with my entries at the County Fair.

I signed up for the local winter farmers' market, and have some fun new do-it-yourself kits. Besides the cheese kit, I have a bubble gum kit, and hand-milled soap kit. The bubble gum kit seems to be the most popular.

My mom and I have also started making goat milk soap and a pure olive castile soap. It's a lot of fun picking out different scents, and discovering what people will like. So far, orange blossom goat milk soap and peppermint castile are the favorites.

A Song For Coco Puff

Sometimes our first freshener Coco Puff is naughty and kicks while on the milkstand. We thought up a funny song to help us laugh throuth the battle. We changed the words to "Down By The Station". The tune is used for "Little Bunny Foo Foo" also.

This is for the dairy goats who need to be trained,
whether in California or even up in Maine:
Stand nicely on the milkstand and nibble up your grain!
Kick with your feet and you will be meat
on the bar-be-que!

Down in the milkroom early in the morning,
see the little dairy goats all in a row.
See the tired milkmaids filling all the buckets,
Puff! Puff! Don't kick! Or you'll go!!

Of course this is all for fun. I don't think I could really eat my little Coco Puff!

My Solar Cooker Experiment

One of my projects for 4-H this year was to build a solar cooker. I looked around on the internet and found a Heaven's Flame design. It looked easy to build, but I saw the shiny part was not pointed at the food. How would that work? I decided to give it a test.

Testable Question: Will the Heaven's Flame solar cooker produce a higher or lower temperature without the upper reflectors?

Materials: I used a 12x12x12 inch cardboard box. I bought four bags of potato chips with bags that were shiny inside. I had black spray paint and some tape, and an infra-red thermometer. The weather was 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and clear with very little wind.

Procedure: I first cut the corner seams of the box so the sides would angle out, and the bottom 'oven' would be 12x12x6 inches. I sprayed the inside of the box black. I set it out in the driveway, tilted toward the sun so there was no shade in the bottom. I took some temperatures. The driveway surface was 137 degrees in the sun, but in the shade it was 76. Within 10 minutes the bottom of the box was at 186 degrees! I measured every 5 minutes for about a half hour, and the temperature stayed between 175 and 186. I next taped the potato chip bags on the sides of the box, shiny side out. I took temperatures again. Surprise! The temperature was 200 degrees, ranging 190 to 200 for the next half hour.

Results: While the the temperature inside the cardboard box with just black spray paint was hotter than it's surroundings, once the reflectors were added, the temperature increased by about 15 degrees.

Conclusion: The Heaven's Flame solar cooker produces a lower temperature without the upper reflectors.

Additionally, we then used the cooker to make some oatmeal raisin cookies:

Solar Cooker Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup oats
1 cup flour
1 pinch salt
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar (white or brown)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chocolate chips and/or raisins
1/2 cup water

Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl, then drop by tablespoonfuls on a black non-stick pan. Our cooker's temperature ranged from 190 to 200 degrees, and it took about 2 hours in the middle of the day to become firm with crispy edges. Rotate the cooker every 10 or so minutes for optimum temperatures. Results no doubt will vary!

Some amusing extraneous data: On the hottest day so far this year (a record breaking 98 and heat index 102), the surface of our black goat Mimzy stupidly sitting in the sun was 107. The surface of our light brown goat Jezebel wisely sitting in the shade was 94. Some water collected in a black flowerpot was 162, which then was pasteurized. Good to know!

It's Butter, Baby!

Once we saw our new cream separator would work, we decided to try making butter. We put 4 gallons of milk, which is a whole day's work for our goats, and got about a half gallon of cream. The cream turns into butter by whipping the cream so the membranes covering the butterfat break down, the fat sticks together, forming butter.

We first tried using a hand mixer, which worked but was very messy! We then used a food processor, which also worked, though after a while the motor got hot and melted the butter! We had to add ice to the final batch.

Once the butter came out of the food processor, we soaked it in ice water to remove the last bit of buttermilk. We then scooped them up with an ice cream scoop and put them in the fridge. We weighed the butter with the barn scale. The half gallon had made a pound of butter!

After testing the butter on a piece of hot toast, we decided to make Scotch Shortbread cookies.
Here is the recipe:

1 cup fresh goat butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with a hand mixer. Add vanilla and salt. Slowly add flour, one cup at a time, mixing to form a smooth stiff dough. Drop by teaspoonfuls on a foil-lined cookie sheet, or into shaped mini-muffin pans prepared with cooking spray. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. Allow to cool before removing from pan. Makes about 20 cookies.

Making Goat's Milk Whipped Cream

I always wanted to try goat's milk whipped cream and butter. My goats make very rich milk, especially Mimzy, but cream separators are usually very expensive. I found an inexpensive one on eBay. It came all the way from Ukraine, and the instructions were in Russian!

There were enough pictures to figure it out, so we started by warming two gallons of Mimzy's milk to 85 degrees. I started turning the handle quickly. I had to make 60 turns per minute! My mom poured the warm milk in the top and magically cream came out one spout, and milk came out the other. The two gallons made just two cups of cream!

It was a hard choice then. Should we make whipped cream or butter? Whipped cream!! We used a hand mixer to whip the cream, then added a cup of powdered sugar. Yum! We'll make butter next time, though it will take Mimzy two days to make the milk!

Last Sunday was the first day our 4-H club was at the big Sunday Market. I was very excited! The day before I was very busy putting together my products and painting my sign.

I had cheesemaking kits, recipe booklets, and cheese wax. My cheesemaking kits have freeze-dried cheese culture, a vegetable rennet tablet, and detailed instructions. I have five different recipe booklets. Each booklet has stories about one of our goats and recipes for either milk, yogurt, chevre, cheddar, or gouda. We have little tubs of beeswax for use on cheese too.




I also met lots of nice people who wanted to buy goat milk to drink or make soap. I really like talking to new people and selling fun things, so I had an awesome time! I can't wait for next week!

Lucky Goats

I always felt lucky to have my goats. Since we've had goats, we've met new people, earned some extra money, and learned tons of new things. Well, what happens when you have extra luck?

Last week when we came home from the grocery store, we discovered an extra goat in the pasture! He was a little Pygmy wether and was very cute. He was obviously a lost pet. A neighbor saw him wandering in the road and thought it was ours because we have goats.

We walked him on a leash all over the neighborhood, but no luck in finding the owner. We called another goat owner, who called another goat owner, who said they could take him, but could give him back if the owner was ever found. Luckily, just as they were ready to pack him off, the owner arrived and scooped him up with a "Come on Fuzz-butt!" It turns out he had wandered most of a mile!

The goat owners standing there were pleased he went back to his home, but wouldn't be empty handed. They returned the next week and bought our last two baby goats, a little buck and doe from Mimzy. They are very excited to now have dairy goats, and named them Tootsie Roll and Remy LeBeau! Lucky people. Lucky goats. Lucky!