Local Goat Cheese!

Fresh goat cheese from The Ram's Farm.
Mmmm mmm good!

That's not the best picture, I know, but I couldn't resist. I love cheese, but I REALLY love this cheese!

This stuff is so yummy and refreshing it almost makes me want to go swimming in there on this sweltering August day. I love Saturdays because I can find Helen and her cheese at the farmer's market and get my fix for the week! I am hoping that she will offer a cheese making class soon so that I can get my first hands on lesson in cheese making.

Getting to know Goats

I need to know more about goats, and if anyone can help me, I need all the help I can get. It has been a life long dream to be a goat owner. It actually started out as a family joke, when Mom wanted a goat so badly because of her own memories of her grandparents farm and the goats they had. Thanks to Mom's love of goats, I always promised that I would be the child who would get her goats. Unfortunately, Mom passed away before I could make the dream come true, but I promise, the dream will come true. One of my favorite errands to run with Mom as a child was to take our weekly trip to "The Cheese Shop" - yup that is what it was named and we LOVED it! Unlike the other members of our family, Mom and I loved goat cheese. I may name the first goat HiHo, after Mom, but if that's too emotional I will take my sister Mush's advice and name the first goat Feta! If I do name the first one HiHo, I will then name the rest of the flock, decided by temperament, after each of the 7 dwarfs!

As for what kinds of goats I want, I know I want Nigerian Dairy goats. I fell in love with these goats last fall at The Common Ground Fair when I went to a milking demonstration put on by the woman who runs Painted Pepper Farm. Nigerians are small and manageable - perfect for a family farm.

Books I am interested in for researching are the following.

Books from Maine

I have decided to take a break from the stressful things in my life today, and focus on laundry and catching up on some long put-off blogging. The intention of this blog has always been to document my process and research for beginning my own business. While it is a long term plan, that involves moving to our own family farm, much of my research involves finding plants, livestock and products to grow, make and sell once I have the business off the ground. The business will focus on sustainability and local products. One of my favorite products, as a researcher, teacher and parent, is of course books. In December's Down East magazine, they had in inset called "Best Books from Maine" which has been thumbed through and dog eared for far too long. So before that magazine joins the pile of magazines in my "business canvas bag" and or torn into pieces and glued into my journal, I might as well post about the books here!

By a Maine River - A Year of Looking Closely by Thomas and Lee Ann Szelog
A new book, published by Down East Books, features professional photographs of nature and wildlife along the shore of a small Maine river by photographer Tom Szelog. An evocative book that opens our eyes to how closely we live with nature even now, in this 21st century.



A Place Called Maine by Wesley McNair
24 Authors, both native and newcomers who reside and write in all reaches of Maine, write about the Maine experience, described by the Maine Sunday Telegram as"A vision of the Pine Tree State that is, at once, vivid, recognizable, and frank... a rich tapestry."







The Year of the Goat - 40,000 miles and the quest for the Perfect Cheese by Margaret Hathaway
I take a particular interest in this book because of my pending research on goats and cheese making. This book is a great starting place for my research on raising goats and making cheese. Part food memoir and part picturesque travel narrative, this book marries the author's twin obsessions with food and all things goat and tells the story of one couple's fascinating journey in search of peace, pastures, and the perfect goat cheese.

Learning to knit!

Ah... the joys of learning something new! My mother in law just left and has spent the past two days teaching me to knit. I am learning a lot about letting go - starting something, getting somewhere, undoing it, and starting over. I am learning to relax and not get attached. This all started with the divine idea of making Christmas presents. Then I realized that as we move to a family farm, I can become involved in the fiber arts. So research I have. At my husbands bidding, I spent a day at the Fryeburg Fair investigating their Fiber barn. Oh me oh my how amazed was I! I learned so much and networked. I bought a drop spindle and some wool hoping to relearn a long lost skill from college. Did you know that angora is six times warmer than wool? Did you also know that Angora is not just a rabbit? The best part was learning that goats can be sheared for wool as well! Not only will I have milking goats but I will also have mohair goats and they can all live together in one happy herd! How perfect is that? The angora rabbits will make the perfect pet for the kids and where else would we want such a warm fiber than in Maine!

The pieces are all coming together and I can't be more excited. I wish the pieces of my knitting were all coming together, but this is the harder part. I can cast on like a pro. I prefer wooden sticks to the metal ones. I can knit, but somehow I keep adding stitches. How the heck am I doing that when I have never learned? Then there is the purling. They say it is so easy - then why is that the part I am consistently screwing up? Well this morning I have started and restarted three times so far. I am three rows in and it looks like I still have my intended 30 stitches. Wish me luck because it is getting colder out and I would really like to wear my new scarf!