Learning New Skills: Dairy

It would seem that this past year-plus has been filled with daily challenges and opportunities for learning new skills; however, the process does not seem to become any easier with time. Currently I'm working to learn about making ice cream, cheese, and soap. As one who long believed that ice cream comprised a mandatory food group, it's only logical that I began there.

Ice cream = (milk + sweetener + flavor) (churned together and frozen). I am excited that the ice cream churn that I ordered has arrived at the store because this will make the process far simpler that the repetitive blending and freezing process I've been using. Take it from a klutz, one can only carry a flat pan of sweetened milk across the kitchen and place it in the freezer without spilling so many times before one is bound to bumble the process. Although I have yet to experience a spill (and this is likely because I hold ice cream in high enough esteem than nary a drop should be wasted), I believe the automatic churn arrived just in time to save the kitchen floor from yet another milk bath. (Have I mentioned the smooth and silky texture of the laminate tile on that floor?)

Practically as soon as the first batch of maple walnut ice cream was made a few months ago, we on the farm began dreaming of offering goat's milk ice cream in the historic Fiddler's Grove section of the next Wilson County Fair . In my slow round-about way I pursued that dream for a couple of months, going so far as to win an enthusiastic response from one of the fair board members before I was able to unravel the regulations that stymie such dreams. To begin one must milk in a certified Grade A Dairy which would cost thousands of dollars to construct and institute here. Once overcoming the dairy hurdle, one needs to process the milk in a certified ice cream processing plant... and that won't be built on this farm in our lifetimes. So we've abandoned thoughts of becoming the next Ben & Jerry's of the goat world, but it took considerable time for me--an ice cream addict if there ever was one--to actually release that dream. Before fully learning about the processing facility requirements (and I admit I am far from learning much more than we won't be doing it), I began to research making cheese.

Shortly after we knew that we would be moving to this farmstead we became enamored of freshly made cheeses from farmer's markets. (The fresh mozzarella at the weekly farmer's market in Lexington, Massachusetts was at the genesis of these culinary tastes.) We have yet to make it to any cheese-making classes or to shadow any cheese makers (time is a scarce commodity), but we've stumbled along reading books and articles, and researching various websites devoted to cheese making. Last week we even pasteurized our first batch of fresh milk!

At its most basic, I believe, cheese = milk (pasteurized) + starter culture + rennet. At least I hope this is correct, for our first batch of soft goat cheese is currently draining in the kitchen following this recipe. My palate is eager for the draining to be complete (but it won't be for another two days) so that I can indulge in soft cheese on crisp bread with a smidge of Barbara & Conchita's home-canned pear jelly. If the result of this first attempt is tasty, we will have achieved another step on the ladder of self-sufficiency. While I do not plan to cook up every type of cheese we may wish to use in the future, I see another layer of food additives vanishing from our diet--and I'm glad. Of course, unfortunately, even should we master the art of home cheese making we won't be able to share the wealth without the aforementioned Grade A dairy and an approved cheese processing plant. So, in our quest to become more self-sufficient we need to pursue another avenue in order to raise the revenue necessary to keep the farm running.

Enter soap. The ingredients (so many oils!) are accumulating around the kitchen, and I'm working to set aside a space in the garage to be dedicated to soap making activities. Soap, just plain soap--for washing, is not a regulated product. (However, soap making any additional claims such as "softening skin" immediately loses its classification as ordinary soap and enters the realm of cosmetic products--all of which are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Our soap will be making no such claims; users will need to try it for themselves to determine any additional qualities our soaps might offer.) In addition to being unregulated, soap has the additional benefits of requiring no refrigeration and offering an endless shelf life. Indeed, the longer it sits the better it gets, I've heard, much like wine.

Basic soap = fat + lye. It took me some months to get my head around the concept of soap because of the necessity of caustic ingredients. The thought of using drain cleaner to wash my skin was unacceptable, until I came to accept that this is what I've been using for my whole life. This is part of the reason I clung to the ice cream fantasy for so long. Goat milk offers so many health benefits, I would love to share what I've learned with the eating public. I guess I'll have to restrict my audience to the washing public, which I do hope includes all readers.

Within the next week I expect to have accumulated the necessary ingredients, materials, and molds for making soap. I do enjoy arts and crafts, and now that I've begun to see that making soap falls into this category I find my enthusiasm building. Since any soap product must cure for six weeks before any use (during which time the blended fats and caustics finish the saponifying process that renders them skin-worthy), please check back in February 2010 to discover whether I was indeed educable and able to learn the art of crafting soap, more specifically milk-based soap.