Indian Runners. Netting Grapes, Coconut Yogurt

The ducklings are doing well. Jean was performing the recommended imprinting during incubation i.e. speaking to them every time they were turned. Indian Runners are supposed to be a flighty nervous bird. Obviously something has changed as these insist on climbing on her and cuddling up. Wacky the last one born who still has little fits of throwing his head back seems fine other than when he has these little episodes.

Jean loves to sit with them to continue the bonding. It's a worthwhile investment. Karl mentioned in yesterday's blog comes to the call because every night when he was locked up Jean would cuddle him and whisper his name in his ear.

Wacky is closest to the bottom with his head back

There were a few opportunistic fruit damaging birds around the vineyard in the last few days and veraison has commenced i.e. onset of ripening. Just a few bunches showing tinges of red.

We lost all but one of the early plums this week to fruit bats who tore open the paper bags. I don't want to lose any grapes intended for wine.

The presence of birds is a good indication that it is time to put up the nets something we'd like to leave as late as possible as it is not ideal for grapes. The Chambourcin and Isabella mind less as they are a hybrids but the Tannat is more susceptible to mildews.

The white netting always looks pretty with the backdrop of green when it is up at first. Later as the vines grow through it and the grass gets untidy it is less attractive. If it doesn't rain too much the mildew stays away but too much rain and high humidity is a killer.

The nets are stored in 200 litre drums to avoid rat damage with each net labelled with its row number as no two rows are identical in length. Twelve trips to and from the hay shed and then both of us lay out the nets and with one of us on each side we drape them as neatly as we can. Later The ends will be stapled shut and a few rocks to hold down the base against strong winds. Surprisingly even though we don't have a fancy mechanism to put up the netting it takes very little time.

The coconut yoghurt was not going well. After 24 hours it hadn't thickened and the souring wasn't apparent. It still tasted like coconut milk. More thickener was added and some more culture. Then last night I left the burner running too long and it overheated. In an attempt to take out the jars before they overheated I accidentally unlocked the clip lock and the contents spilt out. Bugger!

Silton, Chocolate, Saurkraut, Peanut Butter, Coconut Yogurt and Indian Runner Ducks

Woke up this morning to rain. That means we can work on some outstanding indoor tasks. Yesterday evening milk was collected. Only a few litres were bottled and the rest is sitting in the spare fridge letting the cream rise. Jean needs cream to make cultured butter as our stocks are a bit low.

Stilton is the next cheese on our schedule. The first change to the recipe is the fat content. Stilton normally has a higher than normal fat level but as a large portion of the cream is gone it seems it won't be a true Stilton. The next modification (accident) is the starter is to be added and left for 30 minutes. Being in a rush to go and feed our cattle their morning hay that little step is overlooked. An extra 30 minutes is added to the rennet time as compensation. Stilton is a slow cheese, 100 minutes here and then a 100 minutes there followed by a long draining period and pressing before crumbing and re-pressing.

After our cattle are fed their half bale of Lucerne their afternoon meal of sprouted grain is prepped. Put the overnight sprouted grain from the colander into a bucket and add some molasses and leave that in the kitchen so we don't forget. Empty the soaking grain from yesterday into the washed colander, rinse that bucket and add the carefully measured quantity of fresh grain cover well with water.

Back in the kitchen to make some chocolate. A big batch of plain dextrose, coconut oil chocolate to be used to make some fudge and other various morning tea delights. Dextrose provides sweetness but doesn't fool the system into believing you are still hungry. Today for a change the coconut oil is melted so that some exact measurements can be taken. In the past it has been a bit slapdash just scooping out large chunks of solidified oil.

5 parts coconut oil
3 parts dextrose
7-8 parts cocoa powder ( usually best to this to taste, we like a more dense chocolate flavour)

The oil and dextrose first and stir a long time. Dextrose is slow to dissolve.

Stir in the cocoa powder until the mix is smooth. Van Houten's cocoa powder is our flavour preference. Then into moulds to set.

After making the big blocks it was time to make some thin blocks with roasted peanuts and another batch with fried coconut chips and some desiccated coconut. These blocks are made very thin for better mouth feel.

The raw peanuts with shell were roasted in the oven at 200 C. Two kilograms worth. Only a small quantity was used for chocolate and the remainder was ground into peanut butter. Some will go into sate and some just spread on toast with honey.

A week ago the last of the cabbage was harvested and it has just sat in the refrigerator for lack of time to process. Today, one was put aside for cooking and half of the remainder went into sauerkraut. Having tried all types of recipes our favourite is a coarse slicing, a little salt to aid juice extraction (done to taste) and a generous helping of Caraway seeds for flavouring. We keep the processing simple. A few minutes of scrunching in a big stainless bowl then stuffed into a clip lock jar. The stuffing is where most of the bruising occurs. The end of a wooden spatula is used to drive the cabbage firmly into the jar. A jar of water is used as a weight and this is left on the kitchen bench for a week before refrigeration.

The coconut yogurt is set up next.

3 x 375 ml jars of 100% coconut milk. Careful here most of the brands have additives. Ayam and A&T brands are the only pure ones found so far.

3 table spoons of Tapioca starch as a thickening agent

1/4 teaspoon freeze dried yogurt culture

Mixed well and poured into small clip lock jars and immersed in water at 40-43 C for 24 hours. Yes it cools down during the night with no one awake to keep up the temperature but just maintain the temperature the next day to compensate.

The Indian Runner ducks started hatching while all this kitchen work went on. As they dried off they were transferred to the nursery in the bath tub.

A busy day with baby chicks. The mother and three from the first incubator batch were transferred to the main pen of chickens. She is a ferocious mum and this task was not simple.

The four chicks from the second incubator hatching did not have the good fortune of a handy broody hen. They are feathering up well and are transferred to the now empty pen of the first batch. This will be the first night outside for these four but they have been spending their days outside during the day and only nights in the bathtub.

The newly hatching ducklings now have a spare container into which they can reside.

Pitfalls of Rain

Yes there is a downside. The grass grows rapidly and out come the lawn maintenance tools.

We have had so little rain for months that there has been no need to use the mower other than to collect a little grass for the chook pen. The edge trimmer has remained silent for so long I'd forgotten how unpleasant it is to use on a hot muggy afternoon when encased in protective clothing.

Edge trimmers are great gadgets. Before they existed you needed hand shears on your knees to neaten the edges. Now you can wander past waving the roaring apparatus and clear away dense growth in seconds.

In the dry weather you work in a shroud of dust and in the wet you get coated with wet grass clippings, snail remains. And you really know when you hit the dogs fresh droppings.

But two hours later its all done for at least a couple of weeks and looks great.

Never did get to clean up the workshop but at least almost all the wet weather jobs are complete. Might be some rain in a few days which would be a good follow up and a chance to sweep up the mess on the floor of the workshop and tidy up the benches.

A bit untidy

This is what it should look like

Forgot all about the Coconut Yogurt that was made a few days ago. It has set firmly in the refrigerator and tastes great. There is still some experimenting to complete. The firming agent was Tapioca starch of which three tablespoons were added. In the next batch we'll try to reduce this. Also we want to see what the minimum time is to produce a tasty batch. This last lot sat on the stove for 48 hours. The instructions say 12-24 hours.

The Tomato plants are racing ahead but they still look a way of ripening. Fortunately the self sown bushes in the Sweet Potato bed are supplying a goodly quantity each day for the evening salad.

The melons are a long way off producing fruit as are the pumpkins but the vines are looking healthy despite a little nibbling from the night creatures.

Coconut Yogurt, Chocolate Making, Drying Cheese, Testing two blue cheeses

Once again into the fray to try and make a yogurt like product from Coconut milk. Starting from scratch in went four small cans of pure Coconut milk i.e. no other additives. We have only found two brands that don't have additives Ayam and A&T. A generous amount of culture ex Cheeselinks and three tablespoons of Tapioca starch as thickener. We will see.

More chocolate making today. A big block for Jean in case she needs to make more Hazelnut Brownies which have been a huge success at morning tea. You have to have something to look forward to each day.

I made a standard issue block with roasted peanuts and then two small batches of samples. One batch was just chocolate with some Coconut flour for thickening and flavour. This wasn't refrigerated until the next day to ensure the flour full absorbed. And a small batch with just roasted Coconut chips/shreds. We are using only Dextrose for sweetening and keeping the levels lower than usual but adding more Cocoa powder to get that really chocolaty flavour.

The technique we use for drying cheese prior to cheese coating seems to work very well with the resultant cheeses not having excess moisture when opened nor being too dry. Once the cheese is brined it is put on a cheese mat to drain for 24 hours then a paper towel is folded to the size of the cheese and placed beneath to absorb liquid. Each cheese has two paper towels. One drying the cheese and one being dried before reuse. These two towels are alternated until the moisture on the towel does not form a full impression of the cheese. At this stage the cheese coating starts and when two coats are applied to the top half of the cheese it is flipped over and the bottom half done. And then finally the wax and label applied and into the cheese refrigerator to age.

Tonight we looked at two blue cheeses aging in the refrigerator. A stilton and a mock Roquefort.

The Stilton is just right. Fully ripened with not only good blue mould in the needle holes but also blue mould throughout the cavities. The mock Roquefort has good blue formation in the holes but has not fully ripened. You can see in the photograph how it is gooey around the outside but still a bit chalky in the centre. Another couple of weeks at least. It still tastes good though

Attacking the mites and other matters

Across the river at our work place there are now two irrigators to set up twice daily and that means more time away from home. In addition rather than feeding out round bale silage every few days to one set of weaners and then the cows and calves we are putting out small square bales which are loaded on a pallet and driven to the particular feeder, twine cur and all the pieces thrown into the feeder. Why? We have finished all the home made silage and have five really top quality Ryegrass bales remaining. Rather than use them first we are getting rid of all the old small square bales which are a bit rabbit and rat eaten and have broken twine. This will leave us with the 150 new bales collected at the weekend. Between the old stuff and the new Ryegrass silage we should get through the dry spell - we hope.

Back home after two and a half hours away its time to sort out the chook pen. All the sawdust, some still a bit fresh and other well aged and full of chicken droppings is shovelled into 20 litre buckets and carried to an old trailer and dumped. The fresh stuff is kept at one end and the good stuff at the other. The trailer is filled and then we turn to some spare 200 litre drums filling three. All these are covered to keep out the chooks. We will use all this at some stage when the mites have died out.

The uncovered areas of the pens have a heavy dose of dolomite dusted over them while the area under cover has fireplace ash and when dry will have diatomaceous earth as well.

The covered area with fireplace ash

As an experiment one pen is filled with old silage and the other with cow manure. The area under the roosts and under cover is left clear for the moment. It is still a bit wet from the hosing out and needs to dry. It will be a matter of finding time to concrete this space.

Dry Cow manure

Old silage

First resident taking advantage

We barely finish and the rain comes. And the wind. It buckets down. As soon as the first flush has occurred we scramble to remove the plastic bags covering the down pipes. This was to stop the dam water used to fill the gutters during the high fire danger going into the tanks. Jean is up on the roof removing leaves from the gutter. We get soaked.

The first decent rain in a while

The storm passes but we have caught some water.

And there is some damage as well. There were high expectations for the Dragon fruit as it had grown well over Winter and last Summer produced three fruit on a small plant.

Hopefully if the roots are not damaged it may be fixed

In the background some Camembert is under way.

These are tall moulds. In the morning they will be taken out and cut into smaller discs for salting. The tall moulds just save space on the side of the sink.

For 4 days we have been trying to make Coconut Yogurt using coconut milk, Tapioca as thickening and ordinary dried yogurt culture. Well very little happened on the first day. Then we added some honey to see if the culture needed sugar, On the third day in went some Coconut flour to thicken some more. On the third day we tried adding jam setter.

Trial batch or CoYo

I quite like the taste which is very acid now but the texture is still quite runny. Jean didn't like it at all. It went well over some frozen berries for dessert - at least I think so. Maybe we need some special culture although almost everything on the web said ordinary yogurt culture would work. Well it has the sour taste it just needs work on thickening.