WHAT HAPPENED TO APRIL?!?!?!?!?

It's as if two weeks disappeared from April, and ya know why i can tell?  Because I upload my images onto my Mac and arrange them by date (any home images that is) and there are none in there from April 7 to the 21st!  There are images that were taken but none of the farm during that time.  I also have the funny feeling that as soon as spring arrives here, i will be so busy that uploading images and going through them will have to be put on the back burner.  I have decided though that i will be dedicated to one day a week blogging about the week's events.  I started this blog for a reason and that reason being - keeping track of our farm life.  So i best stay with it.

Update here with the pictures from last Thursday at the private concert with Pat DiNizio from the Smithereens.  Plus what else has happened?  Well stay tuned - on Sunday i will share it all!

PAT DINIZIO? SMITHEREENS? WHO IS THAT AND WHY IS HE SINGING IN MY BARN?

Yes, last night we had a private party here in the barn and Pat DiNizio from the Smithereens was our featured performer.  Do any of you remember him?  80's music?  Ya know, the long, big hair, parachute pants days??  Well our new friends contacted us about using the barn to bring him out for a private concert and last night he was here.  Along with Dianna Parks and Kevin Kliest.  It was a good time and Pat certainly had a lot of stories to tell about the old days.

Pictures soon - still working on my series for the Rochester Civic Theatre Lobby (its taking all my time)  so I will get to them up here ASAP, but for now - listen to this and see if you remember this song:

OH SPRING MUST REALLY BE HERE! - NOT!

I know, what was it last weekend it was 80 degrees and this week we have a winter storm warning.   Not a happy girl!  But the best news, and the reason i have not been logging on is this:  i am in on a REALLY big, important series of work that just may bring me back to my old self!

Last Monday, Tuesday and Thursday i spent the day with this fabulous poet, Michelle Fimon, who decided to share in my adventure of creating a series of images for a show in the lobby of the Rochester Civic Theatre.  It was exhausting and exhilarating at the same time!

I had an idea for this series when i was asked to do the show in the lobby - oh, about 2 weeks ago.  My first idea was to take images of women survivors.  But now its turned into just one survivor: Michelle.

I am being very vague here because the whole impact of these images will be lost unless you personally visit the show.  We collaborated in such a way as to recreate what she wrote in the poems, into images in print.  It involved a lot of work, time, blood, sweat, and tears (well maybe not the blood)  and I am really excited on how they turned out.

Stay tuned for the latest…..

MAKIN' CHEESE WITH THE FAMOUS AND FABULOUS JEN

Yesterday i had the pleasure of hanging out with Jen Koski, writer and editor at Rochester Magazine, makin' cheese.  How did this happen?  Well the power of FaceBook reared its ugly head when Jen posted on her wall one day that she wanted to learn something new.  I posted under that, "cheese, i can show you how to make soft goat cheese (chevre) in five minutes - i can also show you how to make goat milk soap (1 hour)- or how to ride a horse (all summer), you pick."

But prior to that I was totally put out there by another friend, Susan who told her, "Sure, come out this summer when I have milk again. The co-op also has occasional Mozarella-making classes. Dawn makes cheese, too ---she is much more accomplished than I am!"

So i was enthralled to have the chance to share my knowledge and expertise at making cheese (not!)  Little did she know that i have failed more times at making cheese then i have succeeded. (shhh!  don't tell her!)

But we had fun!  Jen is one of those types of people that just bubble with enthusiasm and happiness!  Made me smile the whole time and not too many people can do that.  She even came bounding down the stairs to open the door after i knocked and was bouncing up and down like a little girl.  "We're makin' cheese!, Yay!"  I wish i could bottle that up and take it home with me.

I did my best to show her 'the ways' of cheese making, but it took way longer then i had anticipated.  She has an electric stove, i have a gas and the gas stove heats things more quickly we have discovered.  See, I learn something new everyday!

I showed her the simple cheeses: mozzarella, chevre, and ricotta - didn't want to get her too overwhelmed with some aged cheese, plus she needed this info and experience right away for an article she was writing for the magazine, maybe May its coming out.  Now i do believe that we have hit the pinnacle for being in the Rochester Magazine now.  I don't think they will allow us back in at the risk of people starting to rename it the Sanborn Magazine. (jk)

Thanks, Jen for a fabulous time!

THE PIG THINKS SHE'S A CAT

Or maybe not - or maybe she just likes to have a good time like the rest of them - the dogs, cats, whomever resides in the place.  It's all fun and games here at the Sanctuary. : )

Couldn't help but love the light coming through the window the other morning.

Guess who?

Now can you tell? Orange Tabby - we have three of them - guess!

Bet you can't guess who this is?

FETA CHEESE ~ PLEASE!

Yes, it's time to make Feta - one of my favs because it's salty and salt has been a good friend of mine since i can remember when I was a little girl. I would pour the salt right from the shaker into my palm and i would lick it off.  I know, but that's me: a salt hound.  And don't worry my blood pressure is a perfect 110/60.

FETA CHEESE

Nummy!

First I start with a recipe i got from the Yahoo Group - Goat Cheese Plus about 5 years ago.

Heat 1/2 gallon of good goat's milk (the only kind my goat Ezzy produces) to 86 Degrees.

Add 1/4 cup of Feta Mother Culture or 1/2 tsp of direct set culture.

Let set to ripen for 45 minutes.

Dilute 1/8 tsp lipase in 1/8 cup of water.

Pour lipase into ripened milk and then pour diluted rennet into milk as well (that is 1/4 tsp rennet diluted in 1/4 cup water)

Once milk has solidified, cut curds into 1 inch cubes and let set for 5 minutes.

Now comes the fun part:
one must constantly stir the curds for 15-20 minutes.  Depending on how dry you like your Feta, the longer the stirring time the drier the cheese.

So place yourself in a position to stir and be able to do something at the same time, because if I am not doing something else and staring at the clock, i will go slowly insane.  So i choose to check my emails.

Once that is complete - pour the curds into a cheese mold over a rack to catch the whey and flip the mold every half hour for a couple hours.  Then leave set overnight.

In the morning - cut the curds into small squares and place in a container.

Sprinkle all the curds with a generous serving of kosher or sea salt and stir, I shake it. Let it sit it out for a few days to let the salt work its magic and remove the liquid from the cheese. Drain.

And walah!

Beautiful Feta Cheese to enjoy with some good Greek Food, Greek Salad, Kalamata olives, things like that.