Monday, June 29, 2015

What do a gathering of Goat Girls do for fun?

They make CHEESE!

I have had such a great time visiting the Shaw Generations Farm, in Grampian, PA where Jenni, Karena and Susie are starting their goat journey by milking, by making soaps and balms and salves. A big big big garden will supplement their tables when they get into the swing of doing local Farmers Markets. This weekend, at their first market of the season in Grampian they sold out of rhubarb and asparagus and sold loads of soaps. They invited me to hang out with them and I showed up with a basket full of rustic sourdough bread, passing out samples of fresh chèvre, topped with some hot pepper peach jam from HotMamaSalsapdx.com.
Today I went out to the farm and gave the girls a tutorial on making chèvre and Ricotta. I met Grandma and ate some wonderful pizza. After dinner we took a couple of gallons of their fresh milk, added culture and vegetable rennet, which took all of 30 seconds, then they asked, "What do we do now?" To which I replied, "Nothing but watch it for a day".  I hope it turns out and that they like it when they do their taste test. 
Jenni's husband asked how often I blogged and I had to fess up, "sporadically".  But he inspired me to share my happiness in being able to share the joy of cheese making with these new Goat Girls, so enthusiastic nervous about trying it on their own. I can't wait to see if they are pleased.

Even better I get to visit another fully functioning goat dairy which I believe is called Cherish Goat Dairy, located close to Sykesville, PA.