Recipe Sunday: Talitha’s Spinach and Feta Pasta

Our workweek ends late afternoon Sunday after many days of farmer’s markets in the row.  We are exhausted at that point but still need to eat.

One of our favorite quick meals involves pasta, whatever vegetables are in season in market and our Moodna feta cheese.

Of course, you can switch up the vegetables, the pasta and the cheese depending upon what you have as well as add fresh herbs from your herb garden.

This week we had mushrooms and Bialas Farms green garlic and spinach from the Ringwood Farmer’s Market so we made spinach and feta pasta, a fabulous combination!

Ingredients:

1 pound of package of penne pasta

2 Tablespoons olive oil

One plant of green garlic slice in thin rounds through green tops

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

2 cups of spinach leaves packed

Salt and pepper to taste

1 pinch red pepper flakes

¼ pound package of Moodna feta, crumbled by hand

Directions:

1. Bring large pot of lightly salted water to boil.  Cook pasta in boiling water until al dente. Drain
2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add garlic and sauté until cooked.  Mix in mushrooms and spinach.  Season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.  Cook about two minutes until spinach wilted.  Reduce heat, add pasta and feta and stir and cook until heated through.  Serve immediately.

Kidding stats

2013 kidding is done…finally.  Here are the statistics:

We had a total of 97 babies born.

80 in January, 5 in February, 3 in March, 4 in April and 5 in May.

Henry was the sire of all but the last 5 in May that were sired by POG.

We lost two babies at birth and we had to put one down.

We had a set of quads, 15 sets of triplets, 20 sets of twins and 7 singles.

We had 47 bucklings, 35 doelings and 15 unaccounted for because so many were being born in one day.  On our busiest birthing day we had 19 born.

67 babies went to Aden Brook Farm.  11 were sold independently.  We still have 15 here at the farm.

Whew!

Farm Foto Friday April 26, 2013

 

A Friday morning ritual. A series of photographs and brief descriptions that capture the farm at that moment in time.

Farm Foto Friday April 5th 2013

A Friday morning ritual. A series of photographs and brief descriptions that capture the farm at that moment in time.

Farm Foto Friday March 8, 2013 – Dogs in Snow!

A Friday morning ritual. A series of photographs and brief descriptions that capture the farm at that moment in time.

Farm Foto Friday February 15th 2013

A Friday morning ritual. A series of photographs and brief descriptions that capture the farm at that moment in time.

Saturday Barn Report February 9, 2013

Having my second cup of coffee, after a dog walk in the deep snow, and before heading up to milk.  The Nemo blizzard dumped a little over a foot and roads are currently impassable so my milk maids can’t make it to the farm.  I am looking forward to my time alone with the milking ladies.

The snow is over Ruby’s head and she struggled through it as if swimming.  Part of the way, Honey broke the path for her, part of the way I carried her.  The bigger dogs bound through the snow with great joy.

So here we are February already and in the full swing of things.

We have 34 does in lactation and between 6 and 10 still to kid, depending upon who took and who didn’t.  We have eight “keepers”, seven doelings and Eli.  We have the two preemies, Sterling and Bernard, who are thriving and who we have dehorned and will castrate and find them an adoptive pet home.  We have four new babies that will head to Aden Brook Farm.  Cara has been a fantastic farm intern!

The ladies are producing enough milk so we are already making a full vat of cheese daily as well as selling lots of raw milk. Our faithful  milk maids, Rachel and Margaret, have been milking morning and evening and tending to the milk customers.  Dan and I have been experimenting with some fun new cheeses, a Newburgh Brewing Company brown ale washed tome and our own version of Drunken Goat that we think we will call Toasted Goat.  We have also been making vats of chevre, feta and bloomy rinds.  The first batch of bloomy rinds, our Firthcliffe, Aleck Meadow and Idlewild,  are almost fully bloomed and will go into the cave to ripen for the next week or so.   We find ourselves at the winter farmer’s markets in Cornwall, Beacon and Ringwood, NJ with the help of Daniel and Gabe.

Farm Tours started last weekend and were a great success!  The snow cancelled yesterday and today’s tour but Sunday’s tours look good and are fully booked.  Cara does the guided tours through the farm and Dan and I do the tastings in the viewing room and answer questions.  We’ve enjoyed getting to know many of our farmer’s market customers!  Tours continue through the end of April.

Tomorrow Dan is taking Rachel, our milk maid, and little Dor’ss the baby goat to the last Bialas Farms’ Mini-Market and bringing cheese and chocolate chvre truffles.  I can’t wait for the Bialas Farms veggies!  If you happen to go, make sure to wish Dan a very happy birthday.

Yesterday I made more truffles than I could count for Valentine’s Day treats.  I plan to make more this afternoon.  We’ll have them for sale at the markets and at the farm.

Did you see yesterday’s Cornwall Local?  Fun article about the goats eating Christmas trees.  We greatly appreciate DPW delivering to our door all the trees.  The goats have been eating about ten a day!

The chickens are not going to be happy with all this snow so we will likely spread some of the leaf bags we saved for them to romp around in.  I started thinking about what chicks I am going to order this year.  The ducks have started laying again.  Spring is just around the corner!  Things we are looking forward to: maple syruping, starting indoor seedlings, piglets, bees, spring and summer farmer’s markets!

Farm Foto Friday February 8, 2013:The Calm Before the Storm

A Friday morning ritual. A series of photographs and brief descriptions that capture the farm at that moment in time.

Farm Foto Friday February 1st 2013

A Friday morning ritual. A series of photographs and brief descriptions that capture the farm at that moment in time.

Drunken Goat

Have you ever heard of the cheese “Drunken Goat”?

Murcian cheesemakers invented this cheese in 1986 in an attempt to create a distinct regional cheese with big commercial potential. The cheesemakers took a traditional local goat cheese and bathed it in the local Doble Pasta red wine for 3 days. The result was an unqualified success both commercially and gastronomically and has brought attention and capital to that region. Aged for roughly 75 days, this semisoft cheese has a sweet, smooth flavor. The rind has an attractive violet color.  We purchased a wedge from Adams in 2010 ago when we tasting all the artisan cheeses selling in the local stores.  Last year some of the staff at Cornwall Wines encouraged us to make it.

Well, today we did and in about two months, we’ll taste it and see how it came out.  Maybe we’ll have a tasting at Cornwall Wines and pair it with some nice red wines?

Here is the goat cheese and wine before soaking.

Here is each cheese in a ziplock bag surrounded by the wine bath.

We will flip each one as many times as we can over the next 24 hours.  Each cheese comes out to dry for 24 hours and then goes back into the wine bath for 48 hours and then out to dry for 24 hours.  Then we will vacuum pack and age the cheeses for four to six weeks in our bloomy rind “cave” which is set at 50 degrees.

Chris at Cornwall Wines suggested we call it “Buzzed Goat.”  What do you think?