A Surprise in the Barn

Delaware hen and her 15 chicks

The hay loft in the barn has been full of hay since the second cutting of the pasture in August.  We've only had to climb up there to retrieve hay for the goats so I hadn't noticed that there was a hen laying on a nest.  One morning last week I went in the barn and heard a distinct cheeping sound coming from the loft.  At first I thought it was from the bats that have colonized the rafters of the loft.  I climbed up the ladder and saw lovely sight: one of the Delaware hens was moving around the barn pointing out things to eat to her brood of chicks.

 I ran immediately into the house and shouted, "There be chicks in the barn!"  The kids came out with me, we grabbed some chicken scratch, and we sat up in the hayloft watching the hen and chicks running around for at least a half hour.  None of us had ever seen this before because most of our chickens up until now have not had the inclination nor the space to brood their own chicks.  Having the hen raise her own chicks certainly makes more sense than humans doing it!

Two weeks after the chicks were discovered we decided to move them out to "The Chick House", which is a small henhouse not big enough for our 35 laying hens.  We put a fence around an area where they can forage bugs and plants but not be bothered by the other chickens and turkeys.  Below is a video that I took of them outside with their mother.

Selena and Lena, the goat

Lena and Inés are our Nubian dairy goats.  In the video Selena is hanging out with the goats, turkeys (Bourbon Reds) and chickens (Delawares).  In the background you can see how green the garden was this year.

Homemade Yogurt

When people hear that I'm going to get milk from my goats they usually ask me what I'm going to do with all of the extra milk.   Well,  I have to admit that I am always a bit surprised by this question because to me it is too obvious that one would drink it and make yogurt and cheese with the rest of it.  We've been buying raw milk from various sources for the last 4-5 years and I always buy extra for making yogurt and kefir.  The best yogurt that we've had this summer has been the blueberry yogurt with honey added for sweetener.  It's really not that complicated and you don't have to buy anything complicated or fancy.  I use an old cooler and a heating pad to keep the yogurt warm.  And then I use a small thermometer to keep it around 95-100 degrees.

I usually use at least a gallon of milk for making yogurt; might as well make a large batch because it gets eaten very quickly!   I always use raw milk (unpasteurized, nonhomogenized) from a clean dairy that I trust and from a healthy, grass-fed cow or goat (maybe some day I'll milk some sheep!)


 So, to make yogurt, gently heat the milk to 180º F using a candy thermometer.  Don't let the milk boil or curdle on top.  It might take awhile for the milk to get to this temperature so put on some relaxing music or have a conversation with your kids!  Once it has reached 180º take the pot off of the heat and bring the milk down to 110º F.  Sometimes I have put it outside if the temperature is cooler than indoors for a couple minutes but don't let it get too cool.   Stir and check, and recheck the temperature of the milk which may take quite a while.  Don't rush it.  I look at slow cooking like a good friend that is telling me to slow down and enjoy the smells and textures of food. Hey, this is another opportunity to hang out with the people you love!

Stainless steel or glass container 

When the milk has reached 110ºF stir in the plain yogurt.  For every quart of milk add a tablespoon of full fat, plain yogurt (either a good product from the store or some yogurt from the previous batch).

Once you have stirred in all of the yogurt and it looks like it has dissolved in the milk pour it into quart or half sized mason jars.  You can use any glass containers but I prefer mason jars.  Don't use any kind of plastic because you will be heating up the containers to close to 100º for quite a few hours and there is crap in the plastic that will seep into your yogurt.  And, yuck... food in plastic tastes like plastic!  I avoid plastic all the time anyway.

Pour the milk/yogurt mix into mason jars

Cover the mason jars with a lid with place them in a warm place at 95º-100ºF for about 8 hours, or overnight.  Like I said, I find that the easiest way to keep the yogurt at a constant temperature is using a cooler with a heating pad.  The first hour or so I monitor the temperature to make sure it is neither too hot or cold then I leave it.

Cultured milk:  yogurt

After 8 hours check it to see if it's "set".  The smell texture of cultured yogurt is unmistakeable!  It's lovely.  Although, on a side note, my son gets nauseated by the smell so I guess it doesn't affect all people in the same way.  

Cultured milk produces whey which is the whitish, filmy liquid that collects on top of the yogurt.  If you don't mind runny yogurt then do nothing more.  Whey is very nutritious so there's no problem eating your yogurt without draining the whey ª.  But whey can also be used to aid in the fermentation of vegetables and grains.   My family likes a thick yogurt so I usually drain the whey and use it for other things in the kitchen.  Below is one method to drain the whey, especially if you want a thick curd.  Get cheese cloth and hang the yogurt curd in it for a couple hours.


Of course, put a large bowl beneath it to catch the dripping yogurt.

Yogurt curd in cheese cloth

You might only want to drain it slightly and get a runny yogurt.  Once you have the consistency and taste that you like, eat it the way it is or add fruit and/or a sweetener like honey or stevia.  I've tried both and prefer honey as a sweetener.  If you like the taste of stevia it is certainly healthier that sugar.  We love blueberries and it adds a lovely bluish tint to the yogurt.

"The Good Stuff"
@
The Good Farm

ªWhey is high in minerals and has been used for therapeutic purposes going back to the ancient Greeks.  It has been "used to cure dyspepsia, uremia, arthritis, gout, liver diseases, anemia and even TB ingesting up to 1500 grams of whey per day" (Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions)  according to, Whey Beverages by V. H. Holsinger.