Misadventures in cheese

So my friend Brenna calls me up and says "Hey! I have this great recipe for mozzarella we should get together and try to make it!"  Of course I agree as I've always wanted to make cheese and hanging out with Brenna is always fun.  So we make arrangements to meet at my house today after she hits the Carbondale Farmer's Market and the Co-Op.  I get up get dressed this morning and realize I had forgotten to pick up milk.  At about the same time that I realized this my phone rings and it's Brenna.

"Stephie darling, they are out of rennet at the Co-Op. Im running over to Rural King to see if they have any."
Since I was on my way to the store myself I told her I'd check there also.  Kroger's was a bust, so was Rural King (which suprised us) but then Brenna hit up Schnucks and found rennet tabs and all was good. We used the "30 minute Mozzarella" recipe found in HobbyFarms magazine.  But I encourage you to visit the author's website Cheesemaking.com and use her updated recipe.

We had a great time but unfortunately our cheese making escapade did not work out as intended.  Instead of mozzarella we ended up with a cheese spread that we herbed up.  According to her website the problem wasn't us but our milk.  Nowadays a lot of companies are pasteurizing the milk at higher than needed temperatures but just under the temp that would put it into the "ultra-pasteurized" catagory. Sad indeed as we were looking forward to mozzarella. So I do believe that we may be looking into different sources for milk. If you have any tips on store bought brands we would love to hear them.  I wouldn't mind finding some local cow or goats milk but I don't know anyone in the southern Illinois area. Otherwise we will be running to get raw milk from The Family Friendly Farm just north of Cape Girardeau, MO. It's illegal to openly sell raw milk in Illinois I guess.  We are completely up for doing this again though.

Here are some pictures of our misadventure!

PA is beautiful, IL is just hot and sticky :(

It has been supremely hot here in Southern Illinois. Hot enough that I've neglected the garden a bit. I'm still clearing grass with the hand held scythe. Just a ten foot square area between the pole bean tripods and the carport where I have the spaghetti squash. I try to wait until dusk so it's cooler,  It's almost done though and then I am going to till the cleared areas.  My cucumbers are dying out and I believe it's mosaic disease. I'm not sure.  If I can get things cleared then I will try and replant in a different area.  I actually have a pretty good growing season down here for another round I believe. It's worth a shot. As of right now I don't have enough to do any pickles and I was hoping to have started that by now.

As a boon (?) of my neglect some of my zucchini are the size of my forearms. So I will be making zucchini bread, with this I can barter, well that and I still have some of the soap Helen and I made.  I am itching to do another batch.  The okra is starting to produce but I am unsure on when I should be picking them, what size, etc.  Eggplant is starting to set and I believe the first one will be ready in a few days. The potatoes seem to be doing well. I need to hill them up in a bit.  The corn is starting to get ears and the beans are starting to flower.  Ahhh yes, the beans.......I'm starting to hate beans as beans equals Japanese beetles. The fight is on again with them and I am losing.  The Stella blue pumpkin that I got from the seed swap is fruiting so is the yellow squash and spaghetti squash. I'm optimistic about the tomatoes and that's all I will say lest I jinx myself.

Going and spending a week in Slippery Rock, PA (where Ragnarok was) was beautiful. I had a really great week and I even met up with some similarly minded people. Talked a little bit of garden shop but not nearly as much as I would have liked, just not enough time. I unfortunately didn't get many pictures but other people did and I'll try to get some put up.  I am wanting to do a road trip soon not really sure when but I'd like it to be before September.  September will be one busy month!  I have a wedding in Pittsburgh the first weekend, and then I have a fighting event in Holden, MO the second weekend.  Third Sunday of September is a fighting event at my home field in Carbondale and the last weekend of Sept my friends are talking about going to the St. Louis area for a PirateFest.  (I'm not really sure what it's called). Maybe I should wait until October? LOL

Going good in So. IL

Well Friday the rest of So. IL seemed to get their power back on. The boys went back to their mom's and Bill and I got the house back together. We were without power from Friday until Monday. Everything in the deep freeze thawed and we lost quite a bit in the fridge as well. We just didn't have enough room in the cooler. :( We had a kick butt cookout and invited as many people as we could to help us not let it go to waste. Friday I called the State Farm hot line and the girl told me I had a $500 deductible on my homeowners. My groceries might total out @ $200 max if that. We didn't have any car or house damage so.....yeah according to what she was telling me we are on our own with groceries. I am going to call my insurance agent Monday and double check. Bill says not to worry and that things will be OK but I am very aggravated. Not so much with the insurance people, I expect that but that we were unprepared...and that is my job!

I have been lucky as my workplace had generators and I was working my normal days..Many people weren't so lucky. I had the option to not come in due to circumstances but I would not get paid...not an option. There weren't many of us but we did just fine. I work in product information and not sales anymore so it was not as busy.

It stormed again last night but I didn't let it get me too down as I love storms. Yes there is still standing water in parts of the garden and it is a mess. It is suppose to be nice and sunny and slightly warm for the next couple days. Actually, it's not suppose to rain again until Thursday!! I am hoping to be able to get it planted either Monday or Tuesday...Wed at the very latest. So much to catch up on. I hope that everyone is well where they are.

4th of July recap and a sundry of other stuff

Just a note, I haven't forgotten that I was tagged for "What Things I Refuse to Do Without" I just really needed to take a bit to think about it in an honest light.

The first 4th at the house wasnt too eventful. I had to work from 8am t0 4:30 on 2 hours sleep. Caught an hour sleep during lunch in my car and another hour upon coming home. Bill and the Teen cooked and then she was off to see fireworks while we ran some errands and then came back home so that I could catch up on everyone's blog and he can finish belt favors for our fighting group. Ragnorok went well from the perspective of establishing a name for ourselves as a fighting group. It was also a great way for me to meet up with The Unusual Farmchick. As far as a honeymoon it was disasterous (with the storms, the chaos of Ragnorok and all, not to mention the truck crapping out on us). I would really like to save up some vacation time and go away for a weekend, even if its just something round here. Southern Illinois is actually very beautiful with the Shawnee National Forest, Garden of the Gods, FernClyffe, etc. Or maybe we could hit Cape Girardeau, MO or Paducah, KY since both are about an hour away.

The garden is chugging along at a steady (I think) pace so much sprouted and took off while we were gone. We did lose some seedlings, but I am happy with what we have so far. I worry with us getting started as late as we did that we will behind or have poor yield and not much for me to can. We tilled a chunk of the back yard up and I worry that I haven't used the space as efficiently as I could have. But I remind myself that this is our first month at the house let alone our first year, mistakes will be made, losses will be sustained logged and hopefully learned from and avoided. I have pictures on my flickr badge if you follow the link you can see my pics. I will be shooting more frequently because I got asked permission for use of one of my pics for a participatory news group called Now Public.com. I was slightly amused, part flattered and said sure.

Another cool thing that happened lately was that I found out I won a reuseable tote bag from Earthbound Farm with a newsletter, some coupons and a book. I vaguely remember signing up for it back in April I think.. So all in all good day. But now Im tired and going to relenquish the computer to Bill. I have to get up and take pics of the garden...and weed like no tomorrow and also we are going to the farmers market.