Home Dairy Link Up – Show us Your Stuff!

Posted on March 29, 2012 by | 47 Comments

We are finally at the end of March and it’s time for you to share what you’ve done with home dairy.

We’ve got some great prizes for you!

A Bulgarian yogurt starter from Cultures for Health, a $12.99 value. This particular yogurt culture is the most similar to commercial yogurt. I love the piima personally because it sets up at room temperature without any fussing but it’s not thick like commercial yogurt. The flavor, however, is sublime.

A buttermilk starter from Cultures for Health, a $12.99 value. This will elevate your baked goods to a whole new realm. I use it to acidify all my grain doughs and batters, from coffee cakes to bread to biscuits. It makes a great dressing base as well.

Cultures for Health has just about any starter you might need for creating sublime home dairy creations so jump on over and check them out!

 

Everybody’s favorite Queen of Cheese, Ricki Carroll of Cheesemaking.com has donated a mozzarella and ricotta kit, a $24.95 value. She’s also donated a copy of her Home Cheesemaking Book (a $16.95 value) which covers just about anything you can possibly do to milk. By the time you finish reading this you’ll be searching for farmland so you can get a herd of cows or goats (or both).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skipstone, my publisher, has donated a copy of the Urban Farm Handbook, a $24.95 value. Even if you already have a copy they make great gifts.

 

HOW CAN YOU WIN?

If you have a blog, please use the Mr. Linky tool to link to your blog entry showing us what you did this month. If you don’t have a blog, that’s ok. Simply leave a comment on this blog entry by midnight on Saturday, April 7 and tell us what you did.  Doing either thing will put you in the running for these fabulous prizes.

I hope you’ll visit the other sites and meet other like-minded urban farmers – I’m looking forward to checking out everything you’ve done myself!

Next up:  the gardening challenge so dust off your mud boots and trowels.  This is where the seed packets hit the dirt.

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Posted in Local Dairy - Where To Get It And What To Do With It, Urban Farm Challenge

Cultured Milk Challenge

Posted on March 23, 2012 by | 2 Comments

And now, the cultured milk challenge!

Jenny from Nourished Kitchen has got the challenge you’ve been waiting for, all things cultured.

So skip on over to Jenny’s site and read all about it. If you follow the links in her post you’ll find out about other milk cultures you can fit into your urban farming lifestyle.

Remember to come back to this blog next week and add to the comments or link up on the round-up post so that you can be eligible to win prizes! Now get thee some culture!

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Posted in Local Dairy - Where To Get It And What To Do With It, Urban Farm Challenge

On Patience and Gratitude

Posted on March 21, 2012 by | 11 Comments

Wherein the patience is all yours and the gratitude is all mine. I know I’ve been promising you buttermilk, kefir and yogurt for weeks now but I must beg your forgiveness. In late January my husband went on a business trip, returned home and promptly headed to bed. He stayed there for a week with flu and fever. The following week my youngest son came down with it – only this time it was the stomach flu. That lasted a week and then my oldest son came down with it – no stomach ailments but hacking cough. Both boys slept fitfully, waking with hallucinations that took me forever to bring them back out of. And now, I have finally succumbed to that dastardly flu.

The fact that I was up all hours listening to whooping coughs and calming frightened minds down, and spend two to three hours outside in the elements each day doing farm chores has not helped at all. The fact that March came in like a lion (my weather notes from last week read Monday – snow, Tuesday – snow, Wednesday – sleet, Thursday – driving rain, Friday – hail, Saturday – snow, Sunday – snow) has not helped at all. The fact that everyone is as sick as can be of chicken soup, now that I finally need some, has not helped at all. I am gradually getting better and kefir and yogurt are on their way soon, I promise.

In fact, I have a special guest who will be doing the honors and I’ll send you her way quite soon. But for now I wanted to raise a white flag to let you know that I am here, and that very, very soon we will get back on with home dairy challenges.

Until then, think cheesy thoughts and don’t forget to return to this blog at month’s end (when I’m quite certain that March will go out like a lamb) and link up all that you’ve done. I really do have some wonderful prizes in store for you!

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More Home Dairy Challenges

Posted on March 9, 2012 by | 4 Comments

Last week Andrew from Eating Rules shared his soft lemon cheese and Jenni from the Goat Justice League shared her version of the Quillasascut Farm School’s mozzarella. Now what?

Well you may be game for making super easy chevre (the cow’s milk version is equally good) or cajeta (that’s dulce de leche if you have cow’s milk.) You could put your cajeta into homemade chocolate, or snickerdoodle ice cream. You might even make pudding

What? You want something harder? Something like a pressed tomme or maybe something gooey and bloomy like Pav’s Annette cheese?

I’ll leave you to mull these options over. I know I promised you this week would be yogurt and buttermilk and kefir but we’ll tackle those next week. For now happy ice cream and pudding and cajeta and all things bloomy.

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Posted in Local Dairy - Where To Get It And What To Do With It, Urban Farm Challenge

Soil Building Challenge Prizes

Posted on March 9, 2012 by | 14 Comments

Thanks for all you who linked up your soil building challenges or commented on the link up page.  According to your timestamps you responded in this order:

  1. Homesteading Chic
  2. Farmgal
  3. Jenni
  4. CallieK
  5. Kaitlin
  6. Khadijah
  7. Todd
  8. Erica
  9. Delectable Musings
  10. Liz
  11. Grace
  12. African Aussie
  13. Maggie
  14. Meagan
  15. Julie
  16. Whit
  17.  Joanna
  18. Andrea
  19. Waggie
  20. Quinn
  21. Kat
  22. April
  23.  Pak

 
And the prizes go to:

Julia Kaiser – Ten pounds of mineral mix, from Simplici-Tea.com, a $30 value.

Pak – a Vee Garden Basic Container Garden, a $75 value. I blogged earlier in the month about how this container garden actually allows you to build soil. Ok, maybe it was just this morning but it feels like a month ago.

a href=”http://www.africanaussie.blogspot.com/”>African Aussie- a $25 gift certificate to Mechanix Wear Gloves,. There is a pair of Mechanix Wear gloves for just about any activity you would need a glove for, and this certificate allows you to choose whichever type glove you want. I’ve got my eye on the Ethel bamboo gloves but the certificate can be applied towards any glove they make.

Homesteading Chic- a copy of the Seattle Tilth Maritime NW Garden Guide, a $20 value. This one sets the standard for gardening in the Pacific Northwest.

Quinn – an annual membership to Seattle Tilth, a $35 value. This one limited to WA State residents.

Meagan – one pint of red wiggler composting worms, Priceless. I’ve been keeping these little babies busy, just waiting for you. That’s right, I’ve been breeding this particular strain of garbage eating worm for three years now and I think I’ve just about perfected them. Their bags are packed and I’m going to miss them, but I know they are going to a good home.

Andrea – if she’s local. Please reply to me! – one signed 50 gallon rain barrel. This prize is limited to someone 30 minutes from Seattle because Joshua will be signing and delivering it in person.

To all who won, please send your mailing addresses to annette(cottrrell) at yah – hoo so I can get your prizes off to you.

Thanks so much for playing along with the February Challenge. Be sure and work on your March challenges and link up to the roundup post at the end of March to be eligible to win some fun Home Dairy prizes!

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Posted in Growing Groceries - Plants, Seeds and Growing Tips, Urban Farm Challenge