3rd week of April 2008

Spring is a busy time. This week there were sheep to butcher, cheese to make, seeds to plant, weeds to pull, fences to repair,.... But oh how envigorating it is to spend most of the day outdoors and sleep hard at night. Olin had two yearling rams to butcher and the first was a bit of a struggle for him to complete on his own. He was very thankful when a friend unexpectedly arrived to help with the second. Butchering is definitely more pleasant as a community activity! One of the lambs will be used for a Passover meal we are participating in this weekend.

Soft Cheese Logs Fresh Jersey milk has been abundant lately which makes for twice a week cheese-making. Olin is the hard cheese guru and is making tasty strides toward perfecting that art. Since we were out of our winter cheeses, we have been devouring the first cheeses before they are even aged. Soon we'll have enough to start waxing them for aging which will further enhance the flavor. I enjoy making quick soft cheeses. These take a bit of yogurt starter and a couple drops of rennet and after setting up are drained in a cheese cloth bag for several hours. I like mixing in herbs to make a delicious spread for bread or crackers. The logs pictured are chives & garlic, plain and rosemary shallot.

Praying Mantis Egg Sac We are working at cleaning up flowerbeds and getting the tea and asparagus beds back in shape. As we pull out old growth and weed skeletons we sometimes find praying mantis egg cases attached to the stems. I sent our children to search for more egg cases for me to use in demonstrations day and they came back with 30! It's a good thing that the praying mantis is a beneficial insect.

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