YEP THIS WILL BE HARD!

GOTTA LOVE A BOYS SENSE OF STYLE

DRAWN TO A BOYS SOUL

I drove to the farm yesterdy to pick up fresh milk. The route there is down gravel roads that meander through miles of cattle ranches. Since I had to drive slow, I told the boys they could roll down their windows.

They were chattering away for a few minutes and slowly became quiet. Now and then one would say how beautiful something was....point out a flying hawk....angus cattle roaming freely over miles of grass land.

Then we arrived at the farm. The boys got to play with Misty the huge farm dog that loved them as much as they loved her. They chased her through plowed dormant fields and then she chased them.

I talked to the owners and paid for my 4 gallons of milk and pounds of shelled Texas pecans and almonds.

Then we headed home. Back through the fields of grass. The boys began to talk about how old time cowboys lives in the wild west. About the time we pulled back in to my driveway, their dad called to ask them what they wanted for Christmas...and their answer? Cowboy hats, belts, wranglers and boots.

Their is something about wild land that speaks to a child's soul. I remember wandering the hills of West Virginia in the late 60's and my spirit was at peace. At no other time was I truly at peace.

4 DAYS OLD

10 DAYS WITH GRAND BOYS! EXPERIMENT #1

4 Gallons of fresh raw milk will be picked up on Saturday noon. Got this in today! I can't wait to try it out!

6 BEAUTIFUL PINK BABIES

HOMEMADE BUTTER

So since I don't have any baby rabbits to go ga-ga over, I made butter. I left a gallon of milk out on the counter. (ok this part is wrong...you are supposed to suck out the cream from the top of the milk and let THAT set out on the counter).



Then because I wanted to experiment I started the food processor and a jar of milk to see which one formed butter first.





Well duh!! This was really cool though because my grand mother never let me help with the last part. Only the churning.

After about 5 minutes, I stopped the processor and what was floating at the top was "foamy chunks". I know that this time of year the butter is going to be more white than yellow due to cows eating more hay than grass.



I took a slotted spoon and dipped out the butter and using the round side of a metal teaspoon I started pressing on it and the buttermilk poured out of it. I kept pouring it off back into the processor.

After I could get no more out I poured very cold water in to the bowl. I kept working it and pouring out the water, adding fresh for 3 times until the water stayed clear. This was very fun.

You can expect to get about 1 stick of butter from 1.5 quarts of cream. This milk probably only had 1/2 quart of cream per gallon. So until summer I won't get much butter. I may order straight cream this weekend just to have fun with the grand boys and show them how to make butter. We will freeze it for Christmas day dinner.

The second way to make butter is cultured butter. I bought plain raw organic yogurt. Into the second half gallon I place about 1/3 cup of yogurt. I let it sit (where it is now) and before bed I will process the same way to see the difference in texture, color and flavor.

I will try to update the comments section when I am done.