4th week of September 2008
While I'm taking a bit of a break from heavy duty garden work, I've been spending time experimenting with more cheese-making. Several cheese books from the library have kept me entertained while nursing a newborn and have inspired me to try some new varieties. My daughter and I started with two batches of 30 minute mozzarella. Citric acid and rennet are the only things added to the milk and it is nice to have a cheese set up so fast. The next step involves heating the curd a bit more till we can pull it like taffy. The final step is adding salt and eating it warm - yum! Our second batch went right onto homemade pizza. Another variety I tried for the first time was fromage blanc, a creamy soft cheese similar in texture to cream cheese. I added seasonings to the batch to create a veggie dip for cukes, cherry tomatoes and red peppers. One book that I'm reading has recipes for 75 different cheese so I still have a ways to go and next on the list to try is queso blaco, a Spanish cheese made using apple cider vinegar.
There are a lot of orange things being harvested this week. The children brought in all the butternut squash and pumpkins plus they are starting to pull and eat fall carrots as snacks. They are convinced they taste better with some dirt still hanging on. I was disappointed with the squash harvest, too many plants died early and left half mature fruits. Butternut is one of our favorite easy to store winter staples so I'll need to stock up at a roadside stand so we can have our baked squash and pumpkin pudding this winter. Another orange crop comes from an eggplant but is nicknamed "pumpkin tree." The branches appear to produce miniature pumpkins and make an unusual fall decoration. As I am making notes for next year's garden the regular eggplants won't make the cut next year, the plants were piddly plus our family isn't crazy about eating them. Another note is to plant fewer tomatoes and not to feel sorry for all the extra tomato plants left in the greenhouse once I've planted my quota. I didn't get around to staking all the tomatoes I planted plus they are a crop that is fussy about being picked and sold quickly. I was very pleased to be able to sell 250+ garlic bulbs through a friend's farm cooperative. If that continues to be a good outlet, the garlic crop will be increased for next year. Potatoes were also a crop that grew well and didn't need to sold immediately. Fingerlings sold especially well at the farmers' market so I'll be saving plenty back for next year's seed stock.
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