Chipping and Mulching Prunings, Mock Roquefort

Finally, the 25 breeders across the river have commenced calving with one birth this morning. It was still groggy enough to let me put on both ear tags. In this herd we use a letter to denote the year of birth and this is H. The number that follows is from the NLIS (National Livestock Identification System) tag and in this case 101. Only hours old this little heifer now has both ears pierced. The schedule on the wall calls for commencement from 12th July 2013 but they or the bull  obviously didn't see that calendar. Although the other two herds have cows who look close they have not progressed.

Sunday has traditionally been the day we make cheese and having collected milk yesterday evening that tradition continued. The cream had settled and since the choice was a double cream blue i.e. mock Roquefort 9 litres of milk was bottled via a syphon from the bottom of the stainless vat. As usual 4 different starters were added plus some blue mould. Ended up with a few more rounds than was originally planned but it won't go to waste. The kitchen sink is a bit crowded with the Havarti still in progress but what's new.

Small rounds of double cream blue cheese

During the rennet setting time the mulcher was in progress and managed to get the Orchard pruning's mulched and into the NZ compost that was started last week. The cheese then needed some attention and that consumed the couple of spare hours before afternoon herd checks. There is still the Elderflower pruning's to be cleaned up which should provide almost enough mulch to finish off the NZ compost. But that will wait another day or two.

Hunter Valley Wyandotte Club Annual Show, Drying and Coating Cheese

After the morning chores it was off to Maitland for the show. Some incredible birds on show and what an art form picking the winners. We stayed around for the post judging auction and watched one Silver Laced girl go for $150. I suppose they won't be using her eggs for omelettes.

Having brined the Havarti that was made a couple of days ago we are now drying it. It has drained on cheese matting for 24 hours and now a piece of folded paper towel is put underneath to absorb the excess moisture. If the cheese isn't dried enough and waxed then liquid will form inside the wax shield and discolour the cheese. Once the first piece of paper towel is wet it is put to one side to dry and a fresh piece put underneath. These are rotated until the towel no longer becomes wet.

At that point two coats of Plastic Cheese Coating (food grade Poly Vinyl Acetate) are applied and when that is dry the cheese is waxed and a label showing type and date is placed on the cheese and adhered with molten wax and coated with wax. As we use natural coloured wax the label is readable and does not fall off and is water proof. The Type and date label can be linked to the Cheese Making Notes sheet that is completed with each cheese. This is good reference as to what went well or not so well when tasting the cheese some time down the track. The reason for the PVA is to ensure a good bonding surface for the wax. We have done with out the PVA but found the wax can be damaged easily exposing the cheese. The down side of using the PVA is that it has to be sliced off and a little cheese is lost.

Fencing, Chicken Food, Culturing Butter

As usual there was the morning run to check the different herds for any births and top up food where necessary - all well. Yesterday's Havarti soaked in 20% saline solution for 3 1/2 hours and then went on to cheese matting do drain.

We have a local women who works from home cutting hair (very cheaply). A quick telephone call, a time agreed and the job done efficiently while catching up on any local goings on and status of mutual friends.

The Asparagus received a dose of Seasol Plus this morning. As it is a seaside plant why not a bit of seaweed extract. The feeding should ensure better root growth and enhance the spears when the shoot.

In the chicken food we are focusing on grains such as Wheat, Sorghum, Barley and Lupins which are lower in polyunsaturated Omega 6. Always having the chooks free ranging on grass not dirt. Better for the chooks and produces better eggs which are lower in Omega 6.

Added some culture to the cream from the milk collected the other day. In this cool weather it takes 12 - 20 hours to reach the right flavour.

The bulk of the day was spent over the river fencing. Having pulled out the old steel post fence we went around and dug the holes with the Post Hole Borer. The ground was soft and occasionally we hit heavy clay. Some of the holes will need to finished off by hand as the borer couldn't penetrate all the way even with one of us swinging off the end of a steel bar. The bar is used to keep a good distance from any rotating parts. Next week we'll put up the string line and stand as many of the recycled plastic posts as we can and then dig out any remaining holes by hand. With heavy clay it'll take about an hour for each of those.

Havarti, More Sauerkraut, Ported Prunes and the 5:2 Diet amongst other things

Just the usual morning run through all the herds to check on calving progress and food supply, moving the 26 cows and their calves onto new pasture and putting out silage for the weaners. Both groups very appreciative.

A nice fresh patch of green grass for the cows and calves

Finished making two more lots of Sauerkraut from the Nourishing Traditions recipe i.e. the Japanese and the standard Sauerkraut with Caraway seeds. Looking forward to performing a taste comparison next week.

Made three small rounds of Havarti using full cream raw milk. Filled in the waiting times with odd jobs. When there is extended stirring times it's handy to have a paperback to read and take away the tedium. We've tried building an automatic stirrer with no success. All the motor mechanisms we tried turned too fast chopping up the curd. One day when we come across a small reduction gear box or a motor that we can run at a very slow speed we'll have another attempt.

Havarti

Yesterday we picked up half a dozen packets of dried prunes at the wholesaler's. Today we made 15 small jars of Ported Prunes using our own Port. Fill the jar with prunes, top up with port and leave for a few weeks until the Prunes soak up the liquid. Goes very nicely with Yoghurt. The Port Barrel holds about 20 litres and we top it up ever now and then when the level drops below half. The topping up material is inexpensive bulk Port (flagon or box) and a mixture of types and brands. The key is variety and aging. After topping up leave it for 6 months the flavours mellow and refine. It's a handy product to use as gifts to Port loving friends. Before topping up fill a few bottles with the mature product in case any is needed during the 6 months waiting period.

Ported Prunes

Port Barrel

Now that the clean hands jobs were out of the way the grubby task of inserting a bearing into the mulcher was performed followed by a reassembly.

Mulcher Repairs

Being such a stunningly sunny and clear day morning and afternoon teas were had in the Provencal Garden along with a relaxing read but only briefly. Noticed the garden water height indicator was reading low and popped down to the dam to start one of the pumps.

Water Level Meter

Sharpened the chainsaw and attacked the overgrown Elderflower shrub reducing its height and creating some useful compost material.

A mass of potential compost material just waiting for the mulcher

Finally a brief word on out experiment with the 5:2 Diet. This is the routine of fasting or really just calorie reduction for 2 days in 7. The longer the period in which there is no calorie intake the better the result. Rather than bother with having a small  breakfast and a small dinner we decided to fast completely until dinner i.e. last food ingested was before 8 pm last night and no further food until 6 pm tonight - 20 hours. Breakfast was just rooibos tea, morning tea was coffee with just a hint of milk to cut the bitterness and make it palatable and afternoon tea was tea. Not eating wasn't that hard now that we had been practising the routine for a few weeks. There are a couple of times during the day when you feel pangs but by keeping busy they pass. We found that building the routine was important and keeping busy, even preparing food didn't cause all that much of a problem.

The objective of the 5:2 is partially to reduce weight a little but more importantly to take our bodies out of the permanent 'go' mode and stop or reduce insulin and IGF-1 insulin-like growth factor 1) production which cause metabolic change in the body. When these dominate all the time the body never has time to go into rebuild mode. If you are interested in finding out more look up Dr Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer. They have some books and also did a TV program on their trials.

A Day Off?

The farm across the river where we work has a table top 4WD which is at our disposal. For the last two weeks there has been an engine symbol alight on the dashboard. It has done this before and then disappears after a day or two. After the first week we booked the ute in for a check up with our mechanics. Today was the day to drive the 50 kilometres into Newcastle for the examination. We took two vehicles so that we could do some chores while the mechanics examined the problem.

Second port of call was a wholesale food supplier in Warners Bay. They have very well priced items in a number of categories. We replenished our stocks of NZ mussel meat and whole range of lentils, beans and nuts. Spent a pile of money but we won't be back for a few months.

Next stop was Newcastle University to return a few books and we didn't miss the chance to collect a few more. My interest in Henry Wallace a vice president to Franklin D, Roosevelt was sparked by a radio interview with Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick who have just made Untold History of the United States. I collected a few books on FDR in which there were good sections on Wallace. Jean has always been interested in Thomas Hardy and she collected a large amount of material on him and the era and landscape in which he lived. That is one of the pleasures of a large library collection. You can find a wide range of books on any topic. We also indulged ourselves and had a shop bought coffee from one of the endless outlets at the university and spent a relaxing time watching students and teachers.

Called into a specialist bearing place and were lucky enough to get a replacement bearing for the unwell mulcher and still having plenty of time dropped into the fish co-op to see what was on offer. It is not as impressive as the Sydney Fish Markets but did have some variety. We limited ourselves to a small quantity of freshly caught prawns to have as an entrée tonight and a couple of kilograms of Cuttlefish we will clean and freeze for use in other dishes.

With time to kill it was a short drive to Nobby's Beach for lunch. It was an unusually warm day, the sun was bright and the beach was a lovely setting. We sat in the car looking at the ocean and the people passing by as we enjoyed last night's leftovers and some freshly picked Mandarins. Such a nice day.

Nobby's Beach

The rest of the day went quickly collecting the 4WD and heading home for a few chores before celebrating such a good day with a glass of our own sparkling Chardonnay and a few prawns followed by a seafood laksa.

Some days just stand out as being special and different from the routine.

Young Calves and when things don't go according to plan

No new babies this morning on the river although baby 2 missing. drove around the paddock and eventually found the little thing curled up asleep about 200 metres away from mum who was feeding on hay. Never disturb a sleeping calf when it's that young. It shot up and ran straight into a barb fence, fortunately it couldn't get through and lay down to sleep. I could see us spending the next hour chasing it around the next door property. Sometimes good fortune strikes.

Over the river to feed out some silage to the prospective mothers and remove three of the weaners from the wrong paddock. That went smoothly. The paddock that was in use last week was harrowed and the next piece of replacement fencing started.  Strung up a temporary bypass fence and removed the old wire for recycling and took out the insulators. Lastly lifted the old steel posts but left them in situ as markers for the post hole borer.

This new run is also about 100 metres but instead of steel posts we are putting in recycled plastic round posts. The bad news being that we are back to working on ridge country and off the alluvial flats. The last section we did up here averaged about 2 hours per hole with the jack hammer. The holes need to be 750 mm deep and it is pointless to cheat on the depth. We have a pallet set up with the generator and 25 KG jack Hammer and will find out on Thursday how bad things are.

We managed to get home by midday and have a refreshing coffee and scones before we split forces, one going up the hill to check next door's springers and the other starting on the mulching of the orchard pruning's. The missing calf in that group was found and no new mothers but the mulcher shattered a main bearing and the rest of the afternoon was spent removing said bearing. While the unit was disabled in the workshop we took out the chipper blade and put a sharp edge on it. This is not the first time a bearing has failed so at least we have some experience in the replacement process. May be lucky and get a new bearing tomorrow but at worse it may take a couple of days. No dramas as there are plenty of other jobs still o the list.

Productivity for the day down as some items still remained on the day list. That's a surprise!

Potatoes, Yet More Sauerkraut, Pruning Fruit Trees

Checked the 7 girls on the river for the neighbour. The new calf is well, a heifer, fast asleep after her travels into the world. Mum standing guard over her. The Springers and the new mum on the neighbours hill are well but the calf is in hiding. Went across the river and put silage out for the soon to be mothers and the newly weaned 2012 drop. Only a couple of mums are distressed at being separated.

Another bale of silage going out

The new mother on the neighbour's hill, no sign of the her calf but she is not in distress so all must be well

Planted some potatoes in the spots where the cabbages had bee harvested. Potatoes are a vegetable we use weekly for our Friday night treat of fish and chips, it is also a good counterpart to sauerkraut when served as mash. The odd potato goes into Taramasalata and a couple are used when Tortilla is on the menu. Thus we need some potatoes once maybe twice a week. But growing a consistent supply is beyond us. We always have trouble keeping them from sprouting when grown in bulk and have resorted to just planting out a few seed potatoes every week or two but not always successfully. Either very few form on the plant or the plant is slow to grow and the yields backs up to a short term glut. Growing really good large spuds is a rarity. The art of growing a reliable supply appears beyond us. But we keep trying. Maybe someone out there can provide the secret.

Commenced pruning the Orchard today. This year not cutting back as severely as past years. Saw on Gardening Australia recently that Apples and Pears should be in a pyramid shape and stone fruits in a vase. Well a bit late now as we've been pruning everything to the vase shape for years, bugger. Many years ago we watched a Gardening Australia episode which looked at an old bloke in southern Tasmania pruning his apples to a vase shape where the limbs were kept low so that he wouldn't have to climb a ladder to harvest. He being 80 plus it sounded like a sensible idea. Because we have to bag each individual fruit in order to protect against fruit fly and parrots it's much easier to keep to a vase shape and to keep everything within arms reach. Probably too late to change now. Maybe Masanobu Fukuoka was correct in the One Straw Revolution when he spoke out against pruning.

One of the Plums pruned

Each day we have been making a different sauerkraut from the recipes in Sally Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions. The standard sauerkraut with Caraway in the fridge already. The Korean (Kim Chi) is fermenting as is the Latin American. The Japanese is about to happen and then next week a taste test.