I’ve been to Sydney for a few days having city time, which I enjoy so much more now that I don’t live there. I had developed a weariness about Sydney before I made the sea/tree change to this place, become estranged from all the things I loved about the gritty city, and strangely unable to access it socially, too tired from working or commuting or just having general existential battles. Now that I go back on occasion I am learning to love Sydney again, love the inner city, and probably see my friends more than I did when I lived there… They come here for respite, and I go there… I’m always glad to come home, though, and a couple of days away is pretty much the limit when there are only 2 of you to manage the animals and so on…

 I stayed here:

(photo courtesy of Shellfiche’s Flickrstream, taken by our sweet friend Neha who you will have met in an earlier post)

This is the nunnery, in Newtown, so called because of its’ history of female habitation, from catholic presbytry to finishing school to brothel I believe! Now it’s full of wild and free queer grrls who work with machines of all sorts and make art and dumpster dive and build community and get active, politically and do karate and build bikes and bake and garden and live an interesting, moving towards sustainable, inner city life. They party alot too. It’s a wonderfully chaotic household, like it contains its own vortex of energy within its walls. Often the nunnery grrls make the trek north and imbibe the farm energetic, ali most especially, making the most of the earth and the animals and the fabulous stove and oven in the kitchen! Ali always leaves us with jars of lemon curd, or chocolate coated orange peel or marmalade or pickled things… Other fabulous friends get out the mattock and chip thistles, or help us with fencing, or preparing garden beds, or building something or other. Visitors help us to see our life afresh… for the blessing that it is…

I have been meaning to put up a cheesemaking post, and I have pics, so here we go.

Currently the products that I have made most are butter, yoghurt (previous posts) and ricotta, or paneer. Since I have few cheesemaking utensils, I’ve been only able to make cheese that doesn’t require rennet. I have since tracked down a great all-things-cheese site called cheeselinks, and I can order all sorts of utensils and other requirements through them including vegetarian rennet… so as soon as cash flow allows, I’ll be getting myself kitted out…

So here’s my version of ricotta making, using Marja Fitzgerald’s all purpose Healthy Housecow book as a guide (it’s well loved, now, this book, with pages falling out and bits of our life smeared over them)…

You will need:

1 heavy bottomed pot that will hold 4 litres of milk
1 cooking thermometer
1 slotted spoon
6 tablespoons of lemon juice
4 tablespoons of hot water
1 colander
cheesecloth
salt and herbs (if desired)

Pour 4 litres of milk into a pot and heat over a gentle heat until the milk reaches a temperature of between 88 and 92C, not boiling, but with small bubbles forming and rising.

Take off the heat immediately and stir in 6 tbsp of lemon juice diluted with 6 tbsp of hot water (you can substitute apple cider vinegar for lemon juice)

Stir for 2 or 3 seconds maximum. You will see curds beginning to form.

curds forming

Cover for a minute or 2.

Strain the curds into a cheesecloth lined colander, or ladle out with a slotted spoon.

curds are firm enough to ladle out

curds draining and being stirred

Leave the curds to drain for 15 minutes or so, stirring every now and again. 

Add a bit of salt or some chopped herbs at this stage if you so desire.

After draining, tie the cheesecloth around the ball of cheese and tie it off tightly.

tie off the cheese with the cloth

Hang it somewhere to drain.

ricotta hanging from our pots’n'pans ladder. i just put a bowl underneath to catch the drainings.

After about 3 hours retie the cloth tightly.

Leave for about 12 hours or overnight. You should have then a fairly firm ball of cheese.

You can make a softer cheese by adding cream to the curds after they have drained, or a firmer cheese by refrigerating or aging in a cool spot for about 5 days. The firm cheese you can grate or cut into cubes and eaten like traditional paneer.

Oh yes, what’s left in the pot is whey. It can be used in cooking. I feed it to the chooks and ducks. They love it!

In other news, Sunny has gone across to the Other Side. She fell in love with a little calf on the neighbour’s property and just walked through the barbed wire fence and we watch her from afar, feeling anxious that she won’t come back (she didn’t last night) and Tippi cries for her. We’ll probably go on a reconnaisance mission this afternoon to see if we can find her. She must be hungry, unless one of the other cows is allowing her to feed from her.

 I have some lovely pictures Charlene took of the herd, and I’ll put them in the next post.

Also - Charlene has a new job, Hinimoa is no longer wth us, fireweed is evil, and spring planting time is upon us. Working holiday anyone???

All this and more in the next post.

Must go and commune with the animals now. They are hungry.

Much cheesy love, Dairygrrl xx