Goat Patrol

Poppy and Peaches stole my seat! Poppy jumped up and snuggled right into the seat...

Peaches is now taking her turn on "Goat Patrol"

I sure hope they have the backyard under control, they sure look like they do!

Beer Brew Continental Pilsner Phase 2

Well its been 9 days from Phase 1 and the beer is ready for bottling!!

BEFORE YOU START! Sterilize EVERYTHING!! Thoroughly clean ALL equipment with "One Step Cleanser"(or similar product, follow instructions on package). Dissolve 1 TBSP of One Step in 1 gallon of warm water, Wash bottles and equipment with the solution. Rinsing in not necessary with One Step. Seriously this is probably the MOST important step in home brewing. If you don't sanitize your equipment...ALL your equipment... then bacteria will grow and it will destroy your work. What a bummer to wait several months and then have nasty tasting wine...so CLEAN ALL YOUR STUFF!!

  

We took all the labels off of all the bottles a few days ago with some "Super Grunge Remover" then right before bottling we ran the bottles through the "sanatize" cycle on the dishwasher...then we put One Step through a funnel into each bottle... Bottles should be very clean! You can get some pretty neat bottle cleaning equipment, but that just isnt in the budget right now so we just used a funnel and poured One Step from bottle to bottle :)

(continued from Phase 1)

STEP 9: Siphon the beer (avoid disturbing the yeast sediment) into the strong bottles or a pressure barrel. CAUTION: use only returnable beer bottles. One trip/non-returnable bottles are not adequate to withstand conditioning pressure.

(We put some thin fabric over a funnel to help catch any extra sediment particles that might happen to come through the siphon. Once again, you can buy some pretty nifty filter kits, but we just used a funnel!)

Leave the Sediment Behind

STEP 10: Add 1/2 teaspoonful of light spraymalt per pint to each bottle or a max of 3 oz per 5 gallon pressure barrel. Sugar may be used instead. (We used corn sugar instead of Spraymalt...Once Again - FUNNEL!)

We have some awesome friends and thanks to Cory and Jaden we had a great little assembly line going!!

Syphon the beer into the prepared bottles (prepared with sugar or spraymalt)...or if you have a kegging system this would be the time to put the beer into your pressure barrel. 

STEP 11: Cap and seal the bottles securely and stand them in a warm place 65-70 degrees F for 2 days.

Cory, I dont think you will be able to cap all those bottles with your bare hands...Bottle Cappers work wonders!

STEP 12: Finally, move the bottles to a cool place for at least 21 days or until the beer is clear, before drinking.

Homemade Honey Spearmint Custard!

Ive been experimenting with a lot of recipes to get some ideas for what to use all this goat milk on once the goats start producing next spring. We love dessert! I bumped across various custard recipes and ended up making a "Honey Custard", using local honey instead of sugar, Eggs from our dear backyard chickens, and of course I had to incorporate something from the garden...so I used some fresh spearmint!!

1: Wisk 4 eggs and 1/3 cup honey together in a large saucepan

2: Add 3 Cups milk and heat over Medium heat for about 15 minutes (or until the mixture thickens enough to cover the back of a spoon - Stirring CONSTANTLY!)

3: Throw in the fresh Spearmint (or whatever you want for

flavoring) about halfway through. I used a good handful.

4: Once your mixture coats the spoon transfer the pot into an ice water bath for about 30 minutes or until it cools. If at any point your mixture starts to curdle a bit, just give it a good stir :)

5: Refrigerate for at least an hour

6: Enjoy!!

This is when its starting to get FUN!!

The tomatoes in back are doing good and the Lettuce and Arugula are in front and they are doing FANTASTIC! We have already had quite a few salads from the lettuce and arugula and now the spinach is starting to take off too so that is SO fun! There is basil and chives interplanted between some of the tomatoe plants, but you cant really see them from this photo.

Tomatoes and Celery! I was a little concerned about the celery for a while because it just wasnt growing, but it is starting to take off...so are the Tomatoes! I need to get the tomatoe cages on them, but I dont have 30 tomatoe cages so I need to come up with a few more...SOON!

Onions are looking good and the carrots are starting to make themselves known! Henry is loving the carrots!

Potatoes

Bed of Beans and Potatoes

Radishes, Radishes and More Radishes!! There is some Lettuce and Arugula interplanted between the radishes, but you really cant tell the difference from this photo, it just looks like a lot of green!

Awww these Goats!

Goats are very social animals and love to be with people, especially Peaches! She loves following me out to the garden and "talking" about her day :) She has a very precious little noise she makes that is different from her "I WANT FOOD" cry and I just love hearing it!

Poppy is also extremely social, but today was in the high 80s and it was a little too warm for Poppy to want to come out from under her shade...so she just said hi from there.

Homemade Salad Dressing

SALAD DRESSING: (this recipe idea came from Kael. Thank you Kael, I dont think I will ever buy store bought dressing again!!)

You can add whatever fresh herbs are in season to give your salad dressing that extra freshness. Each time I make this dressing it is a little different, but the basic recipe would be roughly:

 

• 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar (more if you like your dressing more vinegary and less if you dont like as much "zing")
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1+ cloves of fresh minced garlic...I like to use quite a bit but some people dont really like too much garlic (I usually use about 6-8 cloves, but we really like garlic. I mince the garlic with a Garlic Press and it makes it really quick and easy)
• 2+ tsp honey mustard/dijon mustard/sweet and sour mustard
• pinch salt
• pinch fresh cracked pepper
• add in whatever herbs you have on hand. (this time I added chives and basil)

Tip from JD & Kristy - They substituted the honey mustard for mustard and honey!! JD said the pure honey gave the dressing some amazing flavor!! Give that a try, I know I am sure looking forward to making "honey dressing!!".

The dressing will seperate due to the oil and vinegar so make sure to give it a good shake before you pour it on your salad. Ive found that refrigerating it an hour or so before eating really helps.

And of course, head our to the garden for a fresh salad and veggies!!

 Enjoy!

Scrambled Eggs and Arugula ... yum :)

This morning Bryan went out and picked some fresh arugula that I put in with our scrambled eggs. Very fresh and Very yummy! I highly recommend giving it a try :)

Beer Brew Continental Pilsner Phase 1!!

Beer Brew!!! (Phase 1 of Continental Pilsner!!)

We have loved making wine here at home and are about to take on our first attempt at beer brewing...

Yes, we got a kit for this first try, but we are looking forward to making another round of beer from scratch....just not this time. Some of our friends in California even grow their own hops in the back yard and make the most amazing beer!! But for now we are starting with this kit :)

It is a Continental Pilsner and the brewing instructions are:

BEFORE YOU START! Sterilize EVERYTHING!!

Thoroughly clean ALL equipment with "One Step Cleanser"(or similar product, follow instructions on package). Dissolve 1 TBSP of One Step in 1 gallon of warm water, Wash bottles and equipment with the solution. Rinsing in not necessary with One Step. Seriously this is probably the MOST important step in home brewing. If you don't sanitize your equipment...ALL your equipment... then bacteria will grow and it will destroy your work. What a bummer to wait several months and then have nasty tasting wine...so CLEAN ALL YOUR STUFF!!

STEP 1: Place the two cans in hot water for 5 minutes to soften contents.

STEP 2: Open the two cans and poor the contents into a clean and sterilized fermenter (Use a sterile spatula to Get it ALL!)

STEP 3: Boil 6 pints of water and add to the fermenter

STEP 4: Mix thoroughly to ensure that the malt extract is completely dissolved.

STEP 5: Add 29 pints of cold water to bring the volume up to 5 UK Gallons. Stir and let stand until the temp reaches 65-70 degrees F

STEP 6: Sprinkle in the yeast supplied and stir

STEP 7: Cover the fermenter, put your airlock in place and place in a warm area (65-70 degrees F) and leave to ferment (NOTE: Beer ferments much more aggressively than wine so make sure you put a towel around the base of your fermentor ...or put it somewhere that won't matter too much if it overflows)

STEP 8: Fermentation will be complete when bubbles cease to rise (7-8 days) or if you use a hydrometer, when the gravity remains constant at a figure below 1014.

CONTINUED WITH STEPS 9-12 in about a week!

STEP 9: Siphon the beer (avoid disturbing the yeast sediment) into the strong bottles or a pressure barrel. CAUTION: use only returnable beer bottles. One trip/non-returnable bottles are not adequate to withstand conditioning pressure.

STEP 10: Add 1/2 teaspoonful of light spraymalt per pint to each bottle or a max of 3 oz per 5 gallon pressure barrel. Sugar may be used instead.

STEP 11: Cap and seal the bottles securely and stand them in a warm place 65-70 degrees F for 2 days.

STEP 12: Finally, move the bottles to a cool place for at least 21 days or until the beer is clear, before drinking.