Sweet Grass Dairy Farm: Part 1

I am a woman who can do many things. I have many talents. When we bought dairy cows, I was up and running soon after making butter, yogurt and ice cream. I even started soft cheese making and have been quite successful.
Artisan cheese, however, has eluded me. I have tried several times but it just hasn't been quite what I wanted.

This past weekend was an anniversary vacation. After 20 years of marital bliss, we celebrated like any other normal couple would celebrate and drove 5 hours south to Thomasville, GA to attend an artisan cheese making class. Romantic, right?

This is why Devin and I are so perfectly matched. Simple trips to learn new skills is quite fun for us, and of course the opportunity to do no farm chores and to sleep in are extra bonuses.

Today I want to focus on the actual cheese class and later this week I will give my penny's worth about Thomasville. I will say that we enjoyed this trip very much!

Sweet Grass Dairy is quite popular in town and it actually is just the *cheese* portion of the dairy. It is a small family enterprise where the dad owns the cows and milk. He then provides the milk to one son, who makes cheese and the other who makes yogurt. These cows are all on grass, which is quite possible in South Georgia. The weather is quite mild through winter and quite hot and humid through the summer.

The class we attended had a total of 11 students and everyone was very nice. There was a variety of folks from three different states too! Some were there to enhance their culinary training, some were interested in being more self sufficient and other were simply lovers of fine cheeses. I didn't find anyone who attended because they looked sexy in a hairnet, can you believe that?

The owner of the company, Jeremy, was the person who taught the class. He was very nice and knowledgeable, and I liked having him there to bounce thoughts and ideas off. We personally are planning to build a small cheese cave in our basement, so we utilized this opportunity to construct ideas and let Jeremy share his expertise.

                          *****Devin basking in a cave of aging Asher Blue wheels*****

One of the many great advantages of this class was the unlimited access to all areas of the facility. We were able to tour the entire place and ask any and all questions. We also helped make the cheese by adding rennet, cutting curds and filling the molds.

                      *** Cave of recently made Thomasville Tomme cheese wheels***

                                  ***Wheels of Thomasville Tomme aging***

After we molded our cheese wheels, the owner places them in a cave to ripen. After about 10 weeks, he will ship our 5 pound tomme cheese wheels to our homes. This means Devin and I will be getting 10 pounds of cheese by summer!!

This is an aging room for the Greenhill Cheese, similar to a brie. Notice the earlier wheels are still cream colored but as they age they are covered in a white mold. This cheese was delicious! All of the cheese wheels are hand turned daily.

The last portion of the class consisted of a cheese and wine tasting session. Sweet Grass is very generous with the samples too. We sampled over a dozen cheeses and were able to compare flavors and textures. We were full from all of the samples!

Raw milk artisan cheeses are part chemistry and part art. I think the art part of it is what I have had the most difficulty mastering. There are many, many variations within the same cheese that the cheese maker can adjust and create. Seeing the process in action and learning variations have given me the confidence to try again.
Visiting an actual cave and learning the feels and smells of a cave have helped us a ton in planning what to expect from our own home cheese cave.

This class was well worth the cost! I mean just in the cheese sampling alone it was worth the price! Sweet Grass Dairy and owner Jeremy are generous and friendly. We had a fabulous day in this class, and I understand why it sells out so quickly!

If you are planning a trip South through Georgia or to Florida, I highly suggest you stop through Thomasville. Sweet Grass Dairy is only one fine spot in this town, but it is well worth your time if you are interested in artisan cheeses. Later this week I will share a post about other aspects of this vacation.

Thank you Jeremy and Sweet Grass Dairy, another gem in the great state of Georgia!
PS. I will take you up on the offer to call if I run into any issues making my next tome at home!

Happy Tuesday Ya'll!

Getting It *ALL* Done

There are some days and weeks when everything falls into place perfectly and all my chores and projects get wrapped up......no wait!! That never happens.

This week was a prime example of how these little chores and projects here and there can suddenly pile up and smack you in the face.

The animal chores have piled up nicely, along with the serious need to spring clean the house. Animals have taken priority, however, and the house will have to wait. In the meantime, I wanted to post an update but have found myself super busy. In fact I have been too busy and exhausted to even take photos.
This is why I am so happy to have kids who like to play with my camera:-) Today's pictures were taken by Indiana and Willow.

I need to add that Indiana celebrated her 14th birthday on the 7th and Quinn celebrates her 16th birthday today! Yes, a busy week here.

First, we picked up more bottle bull calves this weekend. We drove to get 2, but the dairy handed us 4.
I was apprehensive about the youngest of the 4, but we made sure to keep the little guys separated and they are all doing well.

This little guy is beautiful with his white patches!  I think the kids are calling him "Spot."

This guy is the oldest of the 4 and is almost 2 weeks old. Gosh I love those little Jersey baby faces!

In order to have room for the new calves, we moved the older bottle calves out to a far paddock with the horse. These guys are weaned and tagged and doing great. Athena is not like you would expect a horse to be around cattle. She is a nice companion.

This is the Brown Swiss-Jersey cross calf. We had to burn some of the horn buds too, ones that were too large for paste several weeks ago. The burner is quick and effective.

Speaking of Athena, she is a happy horse to see some green grass growing. Indiana and Willow have been really good about keeping her groomed. Indiana has been riding her nearly every day!

The weather has been nice enough to move the meat chicks outside, however we moved the back into the garage this evening. We have two days of rain and cold air moving through. By Friday it should be warm enough to get them back outside.

The ducklings enjoyed the warm day, especially when the girls let them go for a short swim!

Last, but not least, the house lamb Flicka is still doing fantastic! She is in the house more than she should, but it has been a great week to get her outside and acclimated to the outside world.

The kids have her completely spoiled, but I can't blame them. She is a sweet creature.

 

Devin and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary as well this past week, and we decided a short trip was in order! We will be visiting a grass based dairy in Georgia and attending an artisan cheese making class! We are looking forward to the class, and I will be sure to post updates. If you are not following me on Instagram, please do! You can find me @barefootfarm

 

Also, please look for me on Facebook! My Barefoot Farm

 

I post updates through those outlets and will likely use them often during my trip and class.

 

Enjoy the weather and make the most of your time outside! Spring is almost here!!!

The Bummer

I will start by saying Mother Nature can be a real bitch sometimes. Pardon the curse word, but that is how I am feeling today.

We had 70 degree weather on Sunday. Monday it did not get out of the 30's. Last night we had to pile up lots of hay for the cows to stay warm, cows who have shed their winter coats.

The pasture meat chicks piled on top of each other so badly and frantically that three got smashed to death. I spent some time lowering their brood lights and piling warm, dry hay under them to keep them warmer. It worked too, because they were all happy and healthy this morning.
Usually I have them outside by this age (with a brood light), but this winter weather has caused them to spend one more week in the garage in brooders.

The piglets seem to handle the cold fine. We bought 2 more over the weekend, bringing our total up to 4. I gave them lots of hay to bed down inside their shelter. They were happy and healthy this morning when I brought to them a breakfast of warm, raw milk.

The real dilemma in all of these events is that Lila lambed early Friday morning. We have been keeping a close eye on her, but she decided to lamb in the wee hours of the morning. We found her when we went out to milk the cows. She had triplets, however two were dead, still covered in membrane. The surviving lamb was attempting to get up, but Lila was far off on the other side of the area, not interested at all in her lamb. We scooped the lamb up and brought her inside to dry her off and get her started on some colostrum. I realize that the real stuff from Lila would be best, but we wanted to make sure we got warm fluids down the baby. It was a cold, windy morning.

The lamb did well and we brought her back out to see if we could get her nursing. After a couple of days and numerous failed attempts, we now have a bummer lamb in the house with us.
She is cute, sweet and the girls named her Flicka.

She did fantastic for 2 days, and then she suddenly fell ill. She was lethargic, had a temp, and wouldn't eat. We called the vet and gave her a shot of antibiotic ourselves. By evening, she had severe labored breathing. I knew that she would likely die over night.

To my surprise, she was still alive by morning and still breathing quite rapidly. We decided that since we are all now attached to the little thing, that a vet visit was warranted. We took her in and the vet gave her fluids, an antibiotic, a fever reducer, and he tube fed her milk. We brought her home with more meds, but by afternoon she was more herself and would take her bottle once again.

I am very pleased to say that she woke up several times last night to eat and this morning she is a healthy, playful lamb.

The vet has no idea what infection she was suffering from, but the treatment was the same. Her lungs were clear, she had no scours, she had no joint inflammation. She simply did not get a good start in life by nursing and being with her mama.

It was quite stressful for me, having to deal with such a sweet critter who was sick. Lambs are quite fragile and we are not totally out of the woods with her yet, but it is looking positive.

Now, all I need is for the warm weather to show up and stay. A spring without tornados would be nice too.

So here is Flicka, the bummer lamb. Here's hoping the temp outside rises today. I hope you are warm where ever you are this morning, and that Mother Nature is being kind.

Happy Tuesday Ya'll!

Just Jump Right In

This week was a busy one indeed. Not only did we get the new cow Penny, we have been getting a new milk routine established. Milk cows are pretty easy to work into a routine because they love routine. They love schedules. Penny has adjusted to family farm life well and we are slowly getting some weight on her skinny body.

Devin has decided to put permanent fencing up where we have had temporary fencing the last two years. It will be easier to keep the sheep contained and the area is nice and large. I can still sub-divide the area with electric cord to keep the cows in one area of the paddock. Needless to say, Devin has been a work horse driving fence posts. We have no equipment or tractor, so hard manual labor is how we get things done here.

          ***The younger girls bought ducklings with their saved money. Here they are letting them have a short swim in the sun***

I have found myself over flowing with raw milk now that we have two cows to milk. This made me decide it was a good time to start getting pigs. We will run them in the forest for a majority of the time, but for now the little ones are getting milk. We picked up two piglets last night and they are getting settled. I tried many times to get a short video of the piglets off my phone, but it has not been accomplished as of yet. My computer is not playing nicely with my phone. I am not computer whiz at all either. HERE is a link to see the little boogers from my FB page.

                                               ****The first piglets of the year****

One thing I have learned is that the best thought out plans are usually thrown a curve ball at some point. My meat bird chicks were supposed to ship out the end of March. I had feed orders and customer orders all based on that ship date. Then the curve ball came and the chicks showed up at my post office on Friday, 5 weeks early. It was a mistake made on the hatchery end, but we frantically got brood boxes ready and now they are all here cheeping away. The weather is not quite warm enough to keep the brood boxes in the garage as I planned, so we have them in the basement. It is not ideal, but often times such is the case. Less than ideal doesn't equate with terrible. It simply means one must be flexible. I suppose I have gotten really good at being flexible over the last several years. Having a large family does that to a person.

                     ***2 years ago we bought our first dairy cow, and today we have 5!***

I have met many people the last year who want to farm in some capacity, folks who want to opt out of the commercial food system and develop a relationship with their food. My advice is to always jump right in. Sometimes you start with a few hens in the back yard, sometimes you raise a few chickens for meat. You might even decide to buy a beef cow for your land. Whatever the goal, you must start somewhere. You have to stop waiting for the *perfect* time because that time may never come. There are always curveballs to throw off the best and most well thought out plans.
The time to jump right in is now. You might need to start small, but by all means start, and be flexible when the ball curves and ruins your plans. Farming and agriculture are not exact and precise sciences but rather art forms often times.

The last week here has been full of hustle and bustle. The animal chores have doubled and we are finding ourselves exhausted by dinner time. It is a good kind of exhausted though. It's the kind that lets you know without a doubt that your day was filled with work and all the many blessings that go along with that work.
I can't imagine my life if I had never the inclination to just jump right in. How about you?

My New Penny

This week has already been a busy cow filled week.

Last October we hauled Belle off to a friend's farm to breed with his Hereford bull. She ended up staying most of winter, but we finally picked her up on Monday.

Belle is somewhat of a *beefy* looking Jersey, but I was pleased to see she was healthier than ever. She kept weight on nicely and was easy to load and bring back.
It didn't take long before Belle and Lucy hooked up and spent the entire day and night, like long lost friends.

Then on Tuesday we took the trailer up to  a nearby dairy and bought a new milk cow.

She is a young, 2 year old jersey, who just freshened a couple of months ago.  She is very gentle, although a bit shy.
She really is not too sure about the chickens clucking around.
She is milking well, and after a week I suspect she will be completely settled in to a milking routine here.

My only complaint is that she is quite skinny.

Here she is next to Lucy. I will be spending the next month trying t get some weight on her. She is easy to hand milk too, even though we use a machine milker.

She seems to be fitting in well with the calves and cows here.

After much thought and family debate, we decided to name her Penny. We especially love the white dot on her face.

                                        As of writing this, Lucy has not left Penny's side.

We also made good use of yesterday's nice weather to repair the sheep shelter/canopy.

The snow collapsed the canopy and the poles are badly damaged. Devin will have to replace most of them, but we have it rigged in the meantime. Now, we just wait for lambing to begin.

2 years ago we had no cows and today we have 9. I admit that we are somewhat smitten with the sweet Jersey beauties and will likely get more as the year progresses.

For now, we are enjoying the warm weather, the abundance of fresh milk and the promise of a spring season.

Happy Hump Day!!

Snow Day Part 2

Today the south is getting hammered with more snow. Thankfully I am in the northern parts of the state so we are being spared the ice.

The snow, however, is sticking and still falling. In fact it is supposed to fall all day long.

Here are some pictures from this morning.

The day will be filled with sledding and snowman making because tomorrow it will all melt away, and by the weekend it will be in the 50's outside.

Next weekend it is supposed to be a nice 64 degrees. Only in the South does one get to experience several seasons within a week's time.

Here's hoping all my neighbors south of here stay safe!

Happy Snow Day Ya'll!

The Hard Truth of Farming

One thing we have learned as our family farm has grown is this: there will be births and deaths.

This week feels like spring in my mind, although the weather isn't agreeing, because the baby chicks have arrived.

These will be new laying hens for us this year and they are so cute! The kids have enjoyed having the brood box right inside the house.
Unfortunately, there is always a chick or two who do not handle the journey well and die. This batch was no exception. Three chicks died, and although it was sad, the kids have learned to accept this reality.
The remainder of the chicks are doing fabulous this morning, chirping their little hearts away.
It feels like spring in the house.

Lambing season is also upon us and that makes spring ever more a reality for me as well. We spent a good part of Tuesday preparing an area to lock the sheep in at night.

We used the temporary canopy area used by the cows during the polar vortex and simply fenced it in with cattle panels.

The area gives us a place to lock the sheep at night that is predator safe. No wild dogs or coyotes will get in and try to hurt a lamb. Now we just wait and see who lambs. I know that Lyla, the black ewe, is pregnant and ready for sure. Her belly is huge and her udder is filling with milk. The other two ewes I cannot tell for sure yet.
Spring lambing is always exciting and we are now ready.

Of course there are times when the baby animals or even the large animals do not fair so well.
Such is the case with our youngest bull calf we got just last week.

A few days ago this little guy showed signs of a respiratory illness. He had a slight runny nose, but he was still eating well. We treated him with an injection and he seemed much better the next day.
Yesterday morning he was curled up and lifeless in the corner of the calf stall. He was very cold so we brought him inside and placed him next to the fire.

 We tube fed him warm milk and placed heated cherry pit packs and towels on him. After a couple of hours he started to open his eyes. His body temperature was a low 98 degrees, however, as he was hypothermic.
I  called the vet and followed his advice of an injection and attempts to get him warmed up. We placed him on a dog bed and kept the warm pit packs and blankets on him. We pet him and rubbed him and did our best to keep him stimulated all day long.
He never did warm up enough. By 4 in the afternoon he died. It was sad.

We have never lost a calf.

Today we are aware of life and death on a farm once more. Just when you think you've got this all figured out, you are humbled by the fragility of life and you are more aware of the many animals in your care.
Some live and some die, despite your best efforts.

Today we are dreaming of spring and warm weather. We are discussing our plans of endless afternoons playing outside and planting a garden. We are remembering how grateful we are to experience farming in such an intimate way.

We are also looking ahead to a new milk cow. Yes! In about a week we will be getting another milking cow and we are excited! There is always something to look forward to!

Here's hoping you have a fabulous weekend and that spring shows up in your corner of the world soon!