Well that's just hard cheese!!!

Wow! Two posts in one month, is my resolve not to let my blog take over my life weakening?

Nah, not at all I had half an hour to spare before I finish reading the Hunger games trilogy.

If you haven't read it/them yet you need to.

What you also need to do, and you can do this immediately after you've read my blog, is to Google 'Woodworking for Mere Mortals'.  You cannot fail to be impressed!

Anyway, we've had a productive couple of weeks, well Nanny Southwellski has and I've been encouraging her so I've had a productive time too.

Our larder is filling nicely, with jams, pickles, pickled eggs, canned fruit, apple sauce and much more besides, although I can't believe the alarming regularity with which Nanny Southwellski dishes out the pickled eggs to all and sundry.

You can't walk down the drive before Nanny Southwellski has the lid off the jar.

We make our own cheese from the milk Simone our goat provides for us, and already we have a favourite in Chevre, a cream cheese not dissimilar to 'Philly', just tastier.

Cheese press

The cheddar making process is a bit more complicated and you would have to ask Nanny Southwellski about the ins and outs of it but here's my take on it.

You put the milk in a big saucepan and warm it up a bit.  Then you chuck some cheese starter in and wait until the curds have set.

The curds are cut up and scooped out of the whey.

Waxing lyrically

Put the curds in a cheesecloth and then put it in the cheese press and squeeze some of the liquid out of it.

Unwrap it after 'a while', and let it dry a bit before waxing it.

The recipe we use says let it mature for not less than 4 weeks, then gorge yourself!

We cut into our first batch of cheddar today, tasty enough (apart from the side where we cut a bit of mould off) but more akin to Parmesan than a firm but pliable cheddar.

Cheddar Mk1

We think we left it to dry out too long before waxing it, ah well live and learn.  Our second cheddar is on the way only three weeks to go.

Now, you have to have a nice bit of bread to put your cheese on, but what to have, white or wholemeal?

Why not have both, and no I don't mean one of those insipid rubbery loaves you can buy which purport to be 'Best of Both' but one which has white and wholemeal.

Best of both!

I can't take credit for this as much as I would like to.  A good friend of ours, Jo 'Coops' Cooper came to visit a couple of weeks back and brought a loaf which was both white and brown bread all in one loaf.

It's not as hard as it looks, all there is to it is to make two batches of dough, one wholemeal and one white.

Bread with a twist

The process itself is very easy, prepare enough of white and wholemeal dough to make one loaf of each, divide both dough's into two then simply twist a white and a wholemeal together, slap it in you're loaf tin and wait for it to rise.


I have at last, and let me tell you I have tried a good few recipes, found a recipe that gives me a good sized loaf that is well risen, soft on the inside and with a crust to die for and I will quite possibly share it with you next time.

And that's shallot!

This year I said I would get more organised in the veggie growing department and in all honesty it hasn't happened.

Yes we had some lousy weather, too much rain and not enough sunshine.  But that's not all bad, we are still picking cucumbers and tomato's and the alpine strawberries are still fruiting after almost three months.

Our shallots have been harvested, (I needed the plot for something else) dried and braided.  They now hang proudly from our pan rack in the kitchen.




The foraging is going well, and we now have enough Elderberries for a few bottles of wine, I just need to decant my cider and pear wine from the demi johns so I can start the next batch of wine.

Coco found this little chap/chapette on the hawthorn leaves from our foraging for berries.  The shell is 6mm across, that's 1/4" for those of us still working in proper measurements.

On the remedies front we have Hawthorn berries and Rose hips as well and I will start making the winter remedies this week.

You have much to learn grasshopper!

I will also be collecting the last of the red clover flowers to dry along with some white dead nettles.  These both make very pleasant infusions in their own rights let alone the remedial effects on hay fever and PMT respectively.

The grasshopper(right) made its way onto the deck at the back of our house this afternoon, probably thought it was safer there than trying to dodge the sheep and goats playing chase in the paddock.

Don't even think about moving me!

And finally........... yes its wood burner time again and Monty has claimed the hearth.

And don't forget,  The Hunger Games trilogy and Woodworking for Mere Mortals.

Go on, do it now.

Pig wrestling, cider making and more new arrivals

Me and my goats

It's strange to think that at the beginning of July this year we had a large usable paddock, the chance to lay in in the mornings (until Coco decides it's time to rise that is), a kitchen that was adequate for our needs and a bike shed!

Now, it's a case of whoever gets up first, gets to feed the sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, goats and milk Simone and let me tell you it is a pleasure (so far, ask again in November, December and January!) to open the goat pen and see her trot across to the bike shed milking parlour and hop up onto the milking stand.

The goats seem to have an awareness that Coco is a very small person and they are very gentle with her, that said we are always aware that they could get spooked and we are never far away when they are accessible to her.

Coco starts the milking process each morning as we take the first few squirts off each teat into a separate bucket which Coco then gives to the dog of her choice.  Incidentally the dog of her choice is always Blossom.

Lovely cheddar from a Nanny made by a Nanny!

We average about 1.5litres of lovely warm creamy goats milk every milking session, which equates to £4.41 per day if we were buying it from Sainsburys at £1.47 a litre!

Take into account also, that Nanny Southwellski now produces all of our cheese, ice cream, double cream, and sometimes butter as well and we are quids in!!!!! :)

Now a friend of ours who works as a healthcare assistant, who shall remain nameless (you know who you are Angela Attlesey) was concerned about our cholesterol being very high given that we eat several, actually many eggs each week, drink full cream milk and eat home made cheese, butter, ice cream etc etc.

Anyway Sainsburys have been doing free cholesterol checks and mine came back at 4.89 and Nanny Southwellski's was just over 5, result I say.

But joking aside, if it wasn't for our 'friend' we probably wouldn't have had it done and we are grateful for that.  And it doesn't hurt.

So, want some advice?  Get yourself a bike shed, a stainless steel bucket (no seams as these are harder to clean!) and go get a goat, go on do it today.

One, Two, Three! You're out!

Now for the pig wrestling.

We got our pigs for one reason and one reason only to provide us with meat (say venison to me later in the blog!) which has been raised in a loving and kind environment and from a source where we know what has gone into it food wise.

Now that reasoning isn't going to make it any easier when that fateful day comes and they head off to the abattoir, but for now they are a source of much entertainment and good company and that journey is yet to come.

Say 'CHEESE!'

They are also a great means of getting rid of the apple 'cheese' (see left, looks yummy) from our cider and juice making processes.


This is one of the few occasions where we can actually give them something other than pig nuts due to various regulations.

We process the apple outside under the trees they came from and from picking to pigs is only a matter of an hours or so and nothing is added to the fruit.

Taking them into the kitchen would 'officially' make them catering waste and as such we are not allowed to feed them to the pigs.

As an aside if we lived in France we would be able to feed the pigs our surplus eggs, however we don't so we can't! It's all rather confusing really.

Wow, that sounds like I really have a grasp of this whole smallholding thing, I'm really impressed with myself!

But then, 3 apple trees have only provided us with 6 litres of apple juice and 5 litres of cider (maybe) so it's a bit disappointing really.

What wasn't disappointing was my birthday pressie from Nanny Southwellski.

No child exploitation here!

I was lucky enough to get a Vigo fruit scratter and press for me birthday and very lovely they are too.

All I needed to get started was to find a small child to build a stand for the press, a bucketful of apples and away we go.

The remains of the apples after scratting and pressing form a 'cheese', in shape only and the pigs love them.

I'm hiding!

The pigs are also doing an great job of cultivating the plot they are in and this will be the potato patch next year (unless they're still here of course).

The chooks love following up behind them as they turn it all over, I do feel, however, that it's only a matter of time before one of the chooks gets squished!

When we started getting into being more self sufficient one of the things we wanted to make a difference with is waste, not the waste that we pile into our bins day in day out but making more use of what we have.

For example, last Christmas some friends gave us a goose.  Nanny Southwellski left no part unused and even the neck skin got turned into a fabulous sausage made from the giblets.

Now, this next bit isn't necessarily for the squeamish but I will share it with you anyway.

Last Saturday, I arrange with Farmer Robin to collect some bales of straw for bedding at 7.00am.  On the way to his farm the car in front hit a young Muntjac deer killing it instantly and taking off the front valance of the car in the process.

Not having time to stop and pick it up, the deer not the valance, I made a mental note that if it was still on the side of the road on my way back I would have it.

It was still there when I came back at 7.30am so in the back of the van it went.

By 9.30am it had been bled, skinned and butchered and a haunch was in a pan being marinated by Nanny Southwellski ready to go on the barbecue later that day.

The rest of the carcass got jointed, bagged and frozen.

We had a venison goulash this evening, one of Delia's recipes, we just swapped the beef for venison and very nice it was to.

Isn't it amazing how much better venison sounds than roadkill!

Hard work this foraging lark!

Last Sunday we went for a foraging bike ride and pick wild plums, elderberries and crab apples.

Having spotted the crab apple tree on the 'deer journey' we biked the two miles armed with carrier bags and brought almost 10kg home.

Now despite our physically active lifestyle (and low cholesterol!) we'd be the first to admit we're not that fit.  By the time we got back my buttocks were even more painful than Mr Goodleys slipper ever made them at school.

It didn't help that as we made our weary way up the hill to Broadlands that we spotted a crab apple tree not 50 yards from our front door.  The plums and elderberries we have in our garden anyway!  Gutted or what?

Grizzly McDuff

And finally, as if we haven't enough critters we have two new arrivals to introduce.

Our cats, Jarvis and KC have been very loyal if somewhat aloof family pets and we love them dearly but there comes a time when a cat should be taking it a little easier and passing the rat and mouse catching duties onto younger trainees and so we have Grizzly McDuff and Scarface Claw.

Strange names I hear you say, not if you are a fan of Slinky Malinky and Hairy McCleary (from Donaldsons dairy)

These are a series of children's books that we would recommend to any child and indeed to anyone, I love reading them to Coco and she knows all the characters such as Hercules Morse, Bottomley Potts, The Poppadum Kittens to name but a few.

Scarface Claw

But her favouritest of them all is Scarface Claw the toughest tom in town!

Our new arrivals, both males, seem to be settling in well despite the mayhem and madness that is our life.