Raw Milk Cheese, Veldhuizen Texas Farmstead Cheese

Yet another "Crunchy" story and our family's quest in eating raw food to obtain better health. This one is really neat, I promise. Last summer we went on a field trip.... you know us homeschool moms use any opportunity to keep the education alive! This one was at the suggestion of a friend. Her family had recently visited the Veldhuizen Farm and after she told us all about it and shared some of the cheese with us I just knew that we'd have to go someday. So, when I suggested that we make the long trek to visit the Veldhuizen's farm a few weeks later my children were more than agreeable. And to make it even more fun, we invited our friends from Life on the Hay Farm to join us. The farm is located in Dublin, Texas, so it was a good poke from the Ft. Worth area.

When we arrived at the Veldhuizen farm, which is in the middle of nowhere, we were greeted by Stuart Veldhuizen. He and his wife Connie, along with their children (they're homeschooled too) operate the farm. Stuart had just started making some cheese and wanted to make sure the vat was just perfect before he took us on a tour of the farm.

This building looks a little "out of place" on the farm, but it is the store where they sell their cheese. They also sell some hormone-free, grain-feed meats too.



This the vat of cheese that was being made while we were there:



Just one of the adorable calves at the farm:



And then some of their chickens:



My budding photographer took this picture of a weed:




The inside of the "cave" where they age the cheese:
(And BOY, did it smell of cheese...and mold)









Redneck is a true Texas cheese! This cheese is finished off by brushing the rind with beer, which imparts a slight yeasty flavor to the cheese which is unbelievable good!



If I remember correctly this was a cheese that they were experimenting with and brushing with a red wine:



In this picture the whey is being drained off. You can see the yellowish liquid on the floor. I was sure thinking I wished I had drains in my kitchen floor!



At the end of the tour we sat down at the table in the store, ate samples of most of the cheeses, watched the Veldhuizen family place all the cheese curd into baskets, and critiqued the different cheeses that we sampled. This was one of the critique sheets. Do you think we liked the raw cheese?



One of the best things about the day, in addition to the fact that the cheese was delicious, was to hear the story of how and why the Veldhuizens started making raw cheese. I'm not much of a story teller, so if you'd like to know the rest of the story, you, too, will have to make the trek to Dublin to visit with the Velhuizens. And if you do, let me know because I'm out of good raw cheese ;-)

All-Natchur-L

This is where it all began.....

While Momma goose sits on her eggs for 30 days,

sheep are bleating,


horses are hoping that Blair brought them another carrot or apple,

goats are begging for food,


Sugar, the donkey, doing what a donkey does,

while Mr. Bull, the small bull that he is, moans to be scratched,

(Notice his head is down? That is because he is begging to be scratched behind is hump.
He is the funniest thing as he shivers and shakes with pure enjoyment as he is scratched.)

and baby calves are being born.



This is all happening at All-Natchur-L diary farm, in Cleburne, TX. A few months back I decided that our family should start consuming raw milk. Little did I know where that would lead! Nor did I know that I was only fostering a love for animals in my youngest daughter, who is already obsessed with horses. I try to stock up on milk when I go so that we only need to go once a week, but every now and then there is this urge to go the "farm", as our family calls it, just to visit. Blair loves to feed and pet all the animals, especially the horses. She tries to remember to take Bill Barton, the owner, an apple after he teased her one time about only bringing them for the animals.

Several weeks back Janice, the owner's wife, showed me how the goose was sitting on her eggs. (Ok, she didn't actually show me by squatting down, but rather showed me where the silly goose choose to build her nest for the duration of the incubation period. I know that you must be getting a visual on this woman pretending to be a goose!) I watched each week as that poor goose continued to sit on her eggs. What dedication! I don't know about you, but if the Lord required me to sit on a hard egg for 30 days, I'm pretty sure I would have never of had children.

This past week when we showed up at the farm, Blair immediately jumped out of the car and took off to visit all of her "friends". I was sitting in the car waiting, while Blair got her weekly fix of animals, and Janice showed up at the door. She asked if they could give Blair something. My mind went in a hundred different directions, but I honestly never thought about a goose! She went on to tell me that the geese eggs were finally hatching and that a couple had already died because Momma goose couldn't keep them warm. I didn't know what to tell the lady! Here I was trying to be a good mom and allow Blair a chance to visit the farm once a week, but I really didn't have any plans on bringing part of the farm home with us! Oh, and I knew Brent would kill me!! But, as I walked with her to the barn to see the gift that was being offered, I knew that I couldn't say no. Blair and Riley, Bill and Janice's daughter, were trying to pick up the gosling, but Momma was not wanting them get near her. Janice took over and grabbed the gosling and placed it in my hands. It was so soft, sweet, and cuddly. How can you say no to that? In the back of my mind I was thinking, "What am I getting myself into? Brent is going to have a fit!" Blair was so ecstatic when she figured out that they were giving the gosling to her. Her life has been a lot different this past week: caring for a squawking goose, diapering a goose, changing dirty bedding, feeding, watering, and babysitting! All in all, it has been good for her and her sister. Yes, big sister actually likes goose as much as Blair, in fact she is wanting her very own! We still aren't sure how it is going to work out as a pet, I'm still thinking it might make a good dinner, but Blair is determined to see it to the end.

A New Addition

Many of you know just how much Blair loves animals. And, most of you know just how much her father is opposed to them. Well, Brent was out of town this week and we were offered a gosling........ now you know the rest of the story!

Oh, BTW, when I told Brent about the offer, he said he wouldn't have been able to say no either. :~) I'll post later about the great place "it" came from.



"It" weighs in at 2.5 oz. It will be fun the chart its growth over the next twelve weeks.
Blair does have a name, but we are still wondering "its" gender.

Feta Cheese

I started making feta cheese a couple years ago after I bought a cookbook at Homestead Heritage. It has so many wonderful recipes for several different kinds of cheese and looked way too easy; I had to try. I have made this recipe a couple dozen times now with raw milk and pasteurized. It turns out with either, but Raw milk is better. If you don't have a source for raw milk, go ahead and experiment with pasteurized.

Feta Cheese

• 1 Gallon milk

• 15 drops of liquid rennet, or 1/8 rennet tablet, dissolved in 1/4 c water

• 1/4 cultured buttermilk (I've heard that you can use yogurt)

• 3-4 TBL coarse salt

• Warm milk to 86 degrees and add buttermilk. Cover pot and allow to rest for 1 hour to ripen.

• 

I like to use this style of thermometer because of it's accuracy.

• Stir rennet into milk. Cover and allow to sit one hour or longer to coagulate. Do not disturb during this time. You can check to see if it is ripened enough by sticking the tip of a knife into the curd and lifting up. If you get a clean break, then it is done. If it is more the consistency of yogurt, then allow to set a bit longer

• Cut the curd into 1/2 -1 in cubes, creating a checkerboard pattern in the pan. Allow to rest a few minutes and you will see the whey(greenish, yellow liquid) separating from the curd.

Gently stir every few minutes for 15 minutes, expel the whey from the curd. You need to keep the cheese at 86 degrees.
This is after about 7 minutes.

At 15 minutes.

• Line a colander with cheesecloth and set inside a large bowl. (If you want to keep the whey use a bowl, if not you can place colander into your sink). Drain the curds into the cheesecloth.
• Tie up the 4 corners and allow to hang for 4-6 hours, or until whey is no longer dripping out. You should have a nice ball.

• Untie your cheesecloth and cut your ball into slices about 1/2-3/4 inches thick.

• Place your cheese slices in a casserole dish, sprinkle with the 3- 4 TBL of salt, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rest for 24 hours. (I like to use half the salt, wait about 12 hours, flip the cheese over, and then use the remaining salt.) There will be even more whey expelled at this point so expect there to be liquid in your dish.

Notice the whey at the bottom

• You can store you cheese two different ways: either in a salt water brine, or in oil. I prefer to season it with basil and pour olive oil over mine. If you would prefer a brine, you use 1 quart of water to 1/4 cup salt. Feta will keep for 2 months in the brine solution, and 5 weeks in the oil.