The Land

Cheese goes into the Cave

Maggie was able to get another couple of gallons of milk from her Amish friend last week, so we made another wheel of cheese. We again made a simple farmhouse cheddar. After air curing for several days, the wheel of cheese was vacuum-sealed and placed in our 'cheese cave', which is a wine refrigerator I bought off Facebook Marketplace. We just need to wait 2 months for it to age, before we give it a try. Some may ask what happened to the first wheel of cheese we made. Most of

Jun 31 min read

Next Step in Cheesemaking

We took another step in our cheesemaking adventure this weekend, as Maggie's Amish friend gave us another couple of gallons of fresh milk. So far we have made mozzarella and paneer, which are sort of free form, soft cheeses made by adding acid such as vinegar or citric acid to curdle the milk. We bought some starter culture, rennet, and a small cheese press to make a hard cheese that can be grated or sliced. We are starting with a simple farmhouse cheddar. This cheese does no

Apr 261 min read

2026 Maple Syrup Season Ends

It has been a long season, and this weekend we pulled the plug on maple syrup. The weather has been a mix of either continuously warm or continuously cold days and nights, which is not conducive to sap flow or storing collected sap. I ended up boiling three times, and produced a little over 2-1/3 gallons of amber gold. I probably could have gone one more week, but the weather was going to once again be mostly warm days and nights, with only a couple of cold nights to stimulat

Mar 222 min read

30 Minute Mozzarella

Even though we do not have a cow (or sheep, or goats), I have been reading up on cheesemaking lately as something to potentially try. This week while Maggie was taking one of her Amish friends shopping, she mentioned cheesemaking. Her friend's family has cows, and gave Maggie a couple of gallons of milk. This created a little stress, as we don't really have any cheesemaking supplies, and now had perishable milk. Maggie did have some rennet she bought for some past project, an

Mar 11 min read

2026 Race is on

It has been a relaxing winter season. The beehives are ready for spring, I remodeled my closet, and we have been doing a lot of baking. Although it has been cold, and snowy, we have been able to take projects on at a slower pace. That ends this weekend. With the recent warm spell and the end of February, it is time to tap some trees and kick off maple syrup season. I am washing out jars, ordering new lids, and getting equipment ready. Yesterday, I cleaned our reverse osmosis

Feb 191 min read

New Year Desserts

Since we always have a surplus of eggs, we are forever on the hunt for egg-based recipes. We decided to make creme brulee for a New Year's Eve treat. The recipe called for a dozen egg yolks, which raised the question of what to do with a dozen egg whites. As it turns out, angle food cake requires a dozen egg whites. We paired them with some raspberry mead. Happy New Year!

Dec 311 min read

Happy Solstice

We are, technically, in the dead of winter. Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. We celebrated by building a fire in the morning to add to the light and warmth of the sun. We also spent a big part of the day in the kitchen making meatloaf and lamb stock. We also added a loaf of bread to the mix. Usually the house is so cold in the winter, bread takes a long time to rise, but the woodstove and oven added a boost to the indoor temperature. It turned out t

Dec 21, 20251 min read

Lamb Weekend

We have a few acres of questionably fenced pasture, that our neighbor had used to run beef cattle on an irregular basis. Because the grass can get quite long if it is not grazed, we occasionally consider additional animals to help manage that pasture. Cows are a little large for us, goats are a challenge to fence, and pigs generally do not graze. That leaves sheep. Last year had a little bit of a sheep theme to it. We traveled to Lafarge to attend the Ewetopia woolen mill's o

Nov 17, 20253 min read

2025 Garden Wrap-up

Yesterday, November 8, brought the first snow of the upcoming winter season, putting a bow on the 2025 garden. There is still work to be done, but the garden will largely stay untouched until next year. Our weather station reported snow had fallen The snow brings an opportunity to reflect on the hits and misses in the garden this year. Hits Landscape Fabric . We have tried several approaches to controlling weeds over the years, including no-till, mulch, and nonwoven landscape

Nov 9, 20253 min read

Black Walnuts

We have two large black walnut yard trees, and every year they drop dozens of walnuts onto our lawn. Last year, one broke a windshield on our car. On a bit of a lark, I thought I would try harvesting walnuts this year. They literally fall out of the tree, so how hard can it be? As it turns out, it is a process. The walnut, which is what we are probably all familiar with from holiday nutcrackers, starts out encased in a green sticky hull. This hull turns black over time, creat

Nov 3, 20253 min read

The Race to Winter

Looking at the calendar recently, and our to-do list, it struck me how little time we have until winter arrives. There is one week left in October; how did that happen? We have been making progress on our end-of-season projects, but there is still a lot to be done. Part of the work is preparing for spring and next year's garden season. With the garlic bed filled with chicken manure and the last of the bean succession crop gone, the end of October is time for planting garlic c

Oct 26, 20252 min read