Free Issue of The Essential Herbal

Tina over at The Essential Herbal is giving a free download of her great herbal magazine. Read about it below. Be sure to check out her blog as well essentialherbal.com and leave her a comment if you take advantage of her generosity.

Also note that she is involved with a group of bloggers who are doing give aways over the next few weeks, join in the fun and explore some wonderful websites.

Free Issue of The Essential Herbal to Download

Last year at this time we did an issue that was devoted to the need to scale back, plant a garden, reduce, reuse, and recycle. The cover is a collage of posters from the Victory Garden campaigns of the 1940's. The issue is sold out, and now these topics are getting huge coverage. We were just a little too early.

So - we'd like you to download it and enjoy it. The link is:

www.essentialherbal.com/MarchApril2008forweb.pdf

Share it. Forward the link. Send it to your friends, and post it on the lists and forums you participate in. Post it to your own blog and share it with your readers. Help us spread this issue far and wide!

Happy Spring!

Got Cheese?

I almost forgot to get pictures of this first batch of cheese, but it works out ok because you really didn't need to see me mixing the milk with the citric acid or rennet.

So here is the process;

1 gal. milk (I used raw whole cows milk)
1/2 to 1 cup cool non-chlorinated water
1-1/2 tsp. to 2-1/2 tsp. Citric Acid (depending on milk type)
1/4 Rennet Tablet. (1/4 tsp if using liquid rennet)
1 to 2 tsp. Cheese Salt (to taste)

Note: I found this kit at www.cheesemaking.com and you can see Ricki making this Mozzarella there in much more depth then I am sharing here.

1. Crush 1/4 rennet tablet into 1/4 cup cool water until dissolved, set aside.

2. Into a 4 qt. pot pour 1/2 cup cool water and stir in 1-1/2 tsp citric acid until dissolved.
Pour in 1 gal. milk stir and heat to 88 degrees over medium heat. At 88 degrees take your pot off the burner and add your rennet solution, stir gently for 1/2 minute. Allow the curds (solids) to set for 5 to 8 minutes. At this point the entire curd will look like custard and will leave a clear yellow whey (liquids) when cut with a knife. (If the curd is still to soft, let it set for a few more minutes.)

3. With a knife that reaches to the bottom of the pot cut curd into about 1" cubes.















4. Ladle the curds into a microwavable bowl and pressing the curds gently together with your hand pour off as much whey as possible.

I used my hands for this process instead of the ladle, it was easier, the ladle was helpful once there was more whey then curd in the pot.















At this point, and what takes the most time, you knead the cheese and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Here are the instruction in the recipe.

5. Microwave your curds on high for 1 minute, drain off any excess whey. Knead quickly with spoon or hands into a ball until cool. Microwave again for 35 seconds, drain, knead as you would bread dough, and reheat for another 35 seconds. continue to drain your whey and work your cheese into a ball. As the curds cool, reheat as needed for stretch. For a proper stretch the curd must be at least 135 degrees F internally.































6. When the curd is shinny and stretches like taffy it is done. You may add 1 to 2 tsp cheese salt to taste while kneading and stretching.

I used 1 tsp salt, but we think it needs more salt, so next time I will do 2 tsp.

7. When your cheese is smooth and shiny, place it in ice water until cooled down. It is now ready to eat.
















Below is the kit I ordered from Ricki at www.cheesemaking.com
It includes the cheese salt, citric acid, diary thermometer, vegetable rennet, butter cloth and recipe book, I also got her DVD and book.















The process of making this cheese is easy and it produce a tasty product. Thank you Ricki for your website and the kit.

Raw Milk Ice Cream

Another thing I have been doing with my raw milk is making ice cream. I know there is nothing new about homemade ice cream, but this is with raw milk, raw cream and fresh eggs.
Oh yummmm. I got one of those new ice cream makers and I just love it.


I was not sure about these that you freeze the bowl.
I did however have another problem, the nearest place
to get ice is 40 miles away......LOL.

I was watching the Food Network, and Sandra Lee on Simi-homemade was using this one. She seemed to think it
was good so I figured I'd try it. I had looked at so many and
all the reviews were good.

I like the style of it, the only thing....they were out of the
red on, so white had to do.








Here it is apart, (excuse the background mess
I was to lazy to take it into the other room.












The first recipe I made it in was with sweetened condensed milk (1 can) and 2 cups milk. Could not be easier. We like it and Kirk is a sweetened condensed milk fan, I don't care for it.

Then I tried one of the recipes in the book the make came with.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 whole vanilla bean (about 6 inches in length)
2 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar

Combine the milk and cream in a medium saucepan. Use a sharp knife to split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise. Use the blunt edge to scrape out the "seeds". Stir the seeds and bean pod into the Nil,/cram mixture. Bring the mixture to a slow boil over medium heat, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Combine the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar in a medium bowl. Use a hand mixer (or wisk) on medium speed to beat until the mixture is thick, smooth and pale yellow in color, about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.

Remove the vanilla bean pod form the milk mixture. P our out 1 cup of the hot liquid. With the mixer on low speed, add the cup of hot milk to the egg mixture in a slow steady stream. When thoroughly combined, pour the egg mix back into the saucepan and stir to combine. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium low heat until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Transfer to a bowl, cover with a sheet of plastic wrap placed directly on the custard, and chill completely.

Pour the chilled custard into the freezer bowl and let mix until thickened.

This is a very yummy recipe, I hope you will enjoy it.

This is one of the things I am doing to ready myself for bad times, learning to make things myself and not rely on grocery stores that can close their door without notice. We may not need ice cream, it is of course a luxury but it is silly to think we can get by without them also. Who wants to just eat beans, after awhile depression sets in if we don't have some of the things that comfort us.

Please share what you are learning to do for yourself?

Yogurt and What are YOU doing to PREPARE

Over the last several weeks I have been experimenting with making yogurt. I really don't want another small appliance in my small kitchen so I wanted to find a way to do it without a yogurt maker.

There are two schools of thought that I have discovered. Heated and unheated. The unheated kind is really different from what we are used to. With this method you add your 'mother' to the unheated milk and leave it on the counter or place into a oven with a pilot light for about 24 hours. The yogurt is good but runny with curdles in it, more of a drink.

What is a 'mother'? Like making sour dough bread you need a starter, the same is true in yogurt making. You can use either a powdered starter, or part of a commercial plain yogurt, or an earlier batch of your own.

Heated yogurt is like what we are used to. You bring your raw milk up to 180 degrees, slowly and gently, then take it off the heat and allow it to cool to about 110, add your 'mother' and then either wrap in blankets or place in the pilot light oven. In 8 hours you will have wonderful yogurt that you can add fruit, honey, etc. to.

For an excellent article on this go to the Weston Price Foundation
The article "To Heat or Not to Heat: A Yogurt Question" is full of info, also while you are there you might enjoy "A Simple Change in Mindset, Learning to Maximize the Use of Your Real Milk and Cream".

Now this leads me to ask a question and with this question I want to start talking about some things and would like you to share with me also.

What are you doing to prepare? Prepare for what, you ask? With the economy getting so shaky, and talk of a recession or even a depression. I want to know what things people are doing to prepare for hard times.

Please leave a comment and lets get some discussion going, and perhaps we can help each other with common sense ideas on how we can protect our families in these times.