Homemade Cheese

Last year I took a cheese making class with the Queen of Cheese Ricky Carroll. We learned 7 cheeses in one day. I think I have finally mastered the mozzarella so I decided to try farmhouse cheddar. Joe built me a press with a pattern in Hobby Farm magazine. I bought milk from Christensen Dairy at the Pawtucket farmers market. I will not know how it came out for about 4 weeks I will post later.But the milk successfully became curds so I have hope.The picture with the black and lbs then 20 and then 50 lbs for 12 hours.

What to do with a grass fed brisket?

I lucked out and bought 2 grass fed briskets at the farmers market. They were from Plato's Harvest in Middleboro.Usually I would slow cook the brisket with prunes and orange juice and wine and other good things but I decided on corned beef. I corned the beef in a salt,sugar and spice mixture with some cure power. I let it sit in the refrigerator for 9 days in this solution. Then slow cooked it for about 3 hours. This was the best corned beef ever (if i do day so myself) so lean and yummy. No guilt with this meal. After the traditional corned beef and cabbage I made corned beef hash with eggs. This also was great. Now I have to decide how to cook the other one!

Local pork Sausage

Last night I made a spaghetti sauce for dinner using home canned tomato's local carrot,garlic,onion and green peppers(from the freezer) and a little bit of honey(ours).Then I made some whole wheat fettuccine from ww flour from Maine.I had bought sausages from Beaulieu farm in Fairhaven Ma. They were sweet sausages and the were Delicious, I have in the past bought pork from local farms and a few times I had pieces that were very strong and gamy but these were Great!!Also a salad of local greens &microgreens and a salad dressing with local cider vinegar and maple syrup.Tonight we had the pasta again with some three bean salad I canned this summer. This morning we had local oatmeal grown in Maine with local syrup and local dried cranberries. I am focusing on eating local as much as possible this week we have such a stockpile of food in the freezer and shelves of canned goods.