Dairy Goat Farm where Soap & Caramel is Created Naturally

Herbs & Spices

2012-01-24T15:16:00.000-08:00

From the Garden:

Catnip – Use dried leaf for flu and colds. Helps ease headaches and relieve restlessness. Tincture used for arthritis.

Chamomile - Use dried flowers as tea for easing stomach aches, sore throats and fraught nerves. Add to bath for sunburns or muscle tension.

Elder - Use dried flowers as an anti-viral to stave of flu and cold. Use externally to treat wrinkles!

Hops – Use dried cones as a relaxant and sleep inducer. Appetite stimulant.

Hibiscus – Use dried flowers to replace electrolytes. Flushes adrenal system.

Lavender – Use dried flowers for nerve relaxant. Good for cramps, stomachache and gassiness.

Lemon Balm – Use dried leaf to fight flu and cold. Reduces anxiety and panic.

From The Spice Cupboard

Coriander – Use seed to aid digestion and sooth stomachaches

Cinnamon - Use ground bark or chips to treat diarrhea and nausea.

Cardamom - Use seeds to ease bowel spasms and stomach disorders.

Fennel – Use seeds, fresh leaves or flowers to sooth coughs and sore throat. Eases digestive upset.

Garlic – Use cloves to fight colds, flu, coughs. Strong anti-viral and anti-bacterial.

Ginger – Use root to ease nausea, cramping, and diarrhea. Also helpful against cold symptoms and hangovers!

Rosemary – Use dried leaves to relieve headaches and indigestion. Calming and cleansing.

Farm Hack: Coolbot Walk-in Cooler

2012-01-01T16:08:00.000-08:00

Farm Hack: Coolbot Walk-in Cooler

A GIGGLE with the GOATS Jingle Bells Holiday Performance

2011-12-27T13:48:00.000-08:00

Almost Perfect Rum Cake

2011-12-24T17:57:00.000-08:00

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/12/christmas-rum-cake/

Homemade OxyClean Ingredients

2011-12-11T07:57:00.001-08:00

Homemade OxyClean Ingredients

2 parts water
1 part hydrogen peroxide
1 part baking soda

I use 2 cups water, 1 cup hydrogen peroxide and 1 part baking soda. This is a liquid recipe and also reminds me somewhat of Shout spray.
How To Make:

Combine all ingredients and put in an opaque dark bottle. I just stuck a sprayer from the dollar store on top of the hydrogen peroxide bottle.
Use as a pre-treat spray on stains or add 1/4 of the mixture above (about 1 cup total) to a load of laundry, add water and let soak for 30 minutes before washing.

Amish lifestyles compared to "English"

2011-12-04T12:40:00.000-08:00

I am not sure if I have some of this on my blog or not but here you go. The Amish kids, boys especially, are allowed to try the "English" ways including a drivers license for a year to a year and a half at the most. They feel that once they get it out of their system they will return the Amish ways. Some do and some don't but the parents kind of like it because they have a chauffeur that can drive them around for a year or so. If a kid jumps the fence and turns English they are not permitted to eat at the same table as the rest of the family and are shunned but once again that depends of the level of Amish order they belong to.

The Amish kids see how much money their parents make by being "Amish". They have a thriving business whether it is building homes or making furniture because the general public believes Amish made is better quality and there REALLY IS NO DIFFERENCE. They use generator so they can use power tools to build homes to furniture. The Amish name increases the price no matter if it is butter or furniture. Don't get me wrong some of the stuff is REALLY incredible craftsmanship but that is because they can charge more and people pay it because of the AMISH name. The general public is not willing to pay an English man more for the exact same thing an Amish person made. The English man has higher overhead. Why, because the English person can not get his children to work and hand over all their paycheck. The Amish parents give the kids 10% of their check back and they use the rest for household expenses or put it in a savings for the kids for when they get married. The kids are out of school at the age of 14 with an 8th grade education. So that is a lot
of earned money for the parents. By the way the kids are more educated than most of the English kids that graduate from high school. That is those without a learning disability. The Amish have a special education school for the learning disabled.

If you can follow my blog and ask questions and I will answer them on my blog if I know the answer and if I don't I will ask Uriah he is my Amish buddy

Floating a Goats Teeth

2011-11-12T11:44:00.000-08:00

Since we don't have much on the dentition of a goat I thought I would give some basic information. The information is coming from "The Illustrated Standard of the Dairy Goat: A Guide for Evaluating and Judging Conformation" by; Nancy Lee Owen Copyright 1972, 1973, 1977. p. 4-5,Dairy Goat Publishing Corporation, P.O. Box 1908, Scottsdale, Arizona 85252 U. S. A..
Any one with information pertinent to this topic such as diseases of the mouth, teeth decay, abcesses, and such please add your input (if information is from a source please cite your source).

"The dairy goat does not have upper front teeth; instead it has a hadr skin-covered gristle pad. When its mouth is closed this dental pad fits snugly behind the lower incisors. The incisors hold hay or grass against the dental pad while a forward and upward motion or the head causes a shearing action of the hay against the incisors.
Goats have two sets of teeth during their lifetime-twenty decidious teeth or "baby" teeth, and thirty-two permanent or adult teeth. The decidious teeth fall out as the permanent teeth erupt. The chart pictures the lower jaw and lists the approximate age when teeth appear. The molars in the upper jaw correspond to those in the lower jaw. There is considerable variation in the time of eruption of the teeth of individual animals. The teeth can only be a rough guide of actual age. After the sixth year, as the goat ages, the permanent teeth may begin to grow excessively long and gradually spread apart, finally loosening and dropping out. In some goats the incisors have a tendancy to wear down as they age, especially those browsing in sandy or rocky pastures."

I think we all seem to, at times, not take in to mind the most simplistic yet important part of a goat. Without a proper working jaw, good delineation, and a great set of chompers how can we expect them to thrive? Part of herd management should be a quick check over their teeth...since you gotta get the drencher/syringe in there anyway during de-worming.

Amish old order corn and hybrid English corn same age & same county

2011-11-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

This is so hard to believe but seeing is believing. The corn on the right is from an old order of Amish and I doubt that it is genically modified. They save seeds year after year and by the way this is hand planted and hand picked with NO roundup. Even the kernals are different. We got 50 pounds of corn from the Amish lady and this what they ALL look like. By the way we are considered English.

My BUR HEAD

2011-11-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

So much for my bucklings curly locks

2011-11-02T10:02:00.001-07:00

GOAT BUTTER ??? YES goat butter!! Check this out
http://www.chow.com/videos/show/chow-tips/94871/how-to-use-goat-butter

GINGSENG WHITE AMERICAN

2011-09-29T08:41:00.000-07:00

Well I am now an official gingseng hunter. I have the bug. I actually got stung by a group of hornets and that was HORRIBLE but it didn't stop me or my mentor Anthony. The root above looks to me like a lady running with long hair. The Chinese like the root short and fat so that means the roots that grow in the rocks. Roots growing in rock are REALLY hard to dig out without damaging the root.

Raw Goat Milk on streets of SANTA CRUZ

2011-09-14T18:03:00.000-07:00

http://localfoodfreedom-nevadacounty.org/blog/2011/09/santa-cruz-milk-in-a-success/

We are heading in the right direct on the West Coast. Let's see what we can do on the East Coast

Blackie Collins, self-taught knife-making genius - Atlanta.com

2011-07-21T15:31:00.000-07:00

Blackie Collins, self-taught knife-making genius - Atlanta.com

Summer time tomato happy hour appetizer

2011-07-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

Ingredients

1 tbsp. lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
2 pints cherry tomatoes
handful celery leaves, chopped
1 tsp. worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp. horseradish
1 cup bloody mary mix
1/2 cup vodka

Instructions

Wash and dry the tomatoes. Use a toothpick to poke a few holes in the tomatoes.
Place the prepared tomatoes in a bowl.
Whisk together vodka, bloody Mary mix, horse radish and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over tomatoes.
Cover and marinate the tomatoes in the refrigerator overnight.
Transfer tomatoes to a serving bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice and toss with celery leaves, salt and pepper.
Serve at room temperature.

Notes

Time to prepare: 30 minutes.
This recipe is vegetarian.
Serves 4.

MILK BREAK DOWN FROM DIFFERENT ANIMALS

2011-07-13T15:28:00.000-07:00

	(percentage by weight)
Species:	water	fat	casein	whey protein	lactose	energy kcal/100g
Black Bear	55.5	24.5	8.8	5.7	0.4	280
Camel	86.5	4.0	2.7	0.9	5.0	70
Cow	87.3	3.9	2.6	0.6	4.6	66
Dog	76.4	10.7	5.1	2.3	3.3	139
Dolphin	58.3	33.0	3.9	2.9	1.1	329
Donkey	88.3	1.4	1.0	1.0	7.4	44
Elephant	78.1	11.6	1.9	3.0	4.7	143
Fur Seal	34.6	53.3	4.6	4.3	0.1	516
Goat	86.7	4.5	2.6	.6	4.3	70
Horse	88.8	1.9	1.3	1.2	6.2	52
Human	87.1	4.5	0.4	0.5	7.1	72
Kangaroo	80.0	3.4	2.3	2.3	6.7	76
Pig	81.2	6.8	2.8	2.0	5.5	102
Rabbit	67.2	15.3	9.3	4.6	2.1	202
Reindeer	66.7	18.0	8.6	1.5	2.8	214
Sheep	82.0	7.2	3.9	0.7	4.8	102
Water Buffalo	82.8	7.4	3.2	0.6	4.8	101

Our Story not short BUT it is sweeet

2011-07-03T14:54:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh, Vera Wang is now a cover girl!!

Well where do I start. I am from a rural Amish area of Ohio. I left Ohio
years ago and ran my own business in the Bay Area of Ca plus I had a 100
acre horse ranch. In order to keep the horse ranch up I worked constantly
at my "REAL" job to pay the bills. I would RARELY visit Napa Valley and
test taste the wine and the artisan cheese but when I did I really gathered
all the information I could just to get my mind off of stresses of my hectic
life. I once read an article about a wall street person that up and quit
the hustle of New York and bought a herd of goats and started making
cheese. What made her cheese different was she would graze them in almond
orchards a couple of hours before milking and it would flavor the cheese
with a hint of almond.

So the search was on, when I had time, to find the perfect breed of goats
for me and a mentor. I kind of gave the goat idea up and left Ca to retire
in South Carolina, bad move but I moved on to Georgia. In Georgia I found
myself on the search again for the breed of goat and a mentor. I decided
that Saanens were for me. They were similar in the goat world to my
warmbloods that I had in the horse world. Saanens where quiet, loving, big
and milked A LOT. I also found my mentor Sondra Steven of Smith & Jones
Saanens' in Georgia. She had been breeding goats for over 20 years and knew
her stuff.

Sondra sold me Tilly and she was due to kid in a couple of months. Tilly
was kind of a loner so she did just fine by herself. Tilly & I would go for
walks are we really bonded. My little house was above the barn and Tilly
would call me down when she wanted to tell me something or just wanted
company. Tilly had a BIG boy named Aramis and my heart just melted all over
again. Tilly taught me how to milk and all about goat care. Sondra, my
mentor, was there all along the way. When Aramis was born I had Sondra on
the phone the whole time and she told me to get my goat vitamins an drench
Aramis with it. And I thought stick him in a bucket with it?????? Sondra
laughed so hard and said NO put it in a syringe and give it to him.

I passed Sondra test and she sold me some of her best stock and that was the
start of that. So I started with one and bought three more and that is how
I started my dairy herd. I only have eight does that are due to kid in a
couple of weeks. I choose not to breed one year because I couldn't a buck
that I wanted to breed to. Improving my herd is very important to me.

The does mature in production of milk on their third kidding. Tilly will be
up to 3 gallons a day this kidding. My girls are known to stay in milk up
to eight years and some even longer if not bred in between. The milk
production goes down in winter when the days get shorter but it picks right
back up in the spring.

I make soap for people with skin problems and hair loss. I am presently
working on becoming an official grade A dairy with the state of Ohio but I
still have some hoops to cross. I am really kitchen challenged so making
cheese is a challenge for me. But I make incredible THICK yogurt. An
elderly couple that makes cheese that is sold to all the exclusive
restaurants in Cleveland has offered to show me how to make cheese. I need
to find my niche. I make a really good vinegar cheese but that is so simple
a child could make it.

My girls are GMO free so when kidding season hits I am sure that I will have
a lot of boys that will have to go off to the market. I am hoping to create
my own little market for goat meat that is GMO free. I am told that dairy
goats offer a real tender meat. And with a dairy goat you don't have the
heavy bone so maybe you would get more meat. My buckling weight right
around 80 pounds at 3 months old.

So to answer your question I am just at the point of making & marketing my
cheese and selling my kids on open market as GMO free meat. I am not a web
person so no one really knows about my soap.

I am also getting some dairy sheep, Finns. I have made some sheep milk soap
and it is incredible as a facial soap for aging skin.

Thank you for asking about my girls!!!!

Health Benefits of Cinnamon

2011-05-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

The Health Benefits of Cinnamon

Cholesterol: just ½ tsp a day of cinnamon can help lower LDL cholesterol.

Infections: Some studies have proven that cinnamon helps stop yeast infections

Diabetes: Cinnamon may help regulate blood sugar with Type 2 Diabetes

Blood: Cinnamon may have an anti-clotting effect.

Inflammation: Studies have shown that one tbsp of cinnamon a day can help with arthritis pain.

Indigestion: Cinnamon helps to reduce indigestion, gas, and nausea.

IBS: The fiber in cinnamon possibly gives relief to those with IBS

Menstruation: Cinnamon works to reduce menstrual pain.

Warming: Cinnamon is a natural warmer and helps your body feel warm when it’s cold.

Antibacterial and Antiparasitic: Cinnamon has both of these properties and some studies have shown it’s effective towards head lice and bacterial infections.

Nutrition: Cinnamon is a great source of calcium, fiber, iron, and manganese.

Memory: Cinnamon helps cognitive function and boosts memory

Cancer: Because cinnamon has both calcium and fiber, which helps to remove bile, it helps to prevent one of the causes of colon cancer.

Heart: Cinnamon creates antioxidants that aide in healthy arteries and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Energy: Cinnamon’s scent helps to increase energy

Enjoy the many health benefits of cinnamon by adding a teaspoon to your morning oatmeal or sprinkled on freshly sliced apples. Cinnamon helps reduce your cholesterol, aides in digestion, has many antibacterial and viral properties, gives you energy, reduces pain, and has many nutrients. Being healthy has never tasted better.

Our Mothers Day present for my Mother

2011-05-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

We built an arbor and planted red tables grapes on each side. We are putting solar lights on the arch today. Urie and his son Jerame put it together and yes they are Amish. It LOOKS like my Father is working but as usual he is not he is just putting his two cents in. But my Father did come up with some good ideas on the project.

CHEESE PLEASE BUT ONLY GOAT MILK CHEESE!!!!

2011-05-11T14:17:00.000-07:00

For beginners this is the easiest SemiSoft Chevre recipe it is titled

Neufchatel Super easy and just goes to show no heating of milk! 2 day process

Neufchatel (using goats milk)

2 quarts goats milk

2 tbls plain yogurt

1/4 tablet rennet (in 1 tsp cool unclorinated water)

In large bowl or 2 quart jar add yogurt to milk and stir well, mix the 1/4/ tablet of rennet in 1 tsp of unchlorinated water, add to milk. Let this sit on the counter overnight, next morning pour milk into a muslin/cheesecloth lined strainer let it drain/hang at least half the day. Then put cheese in a bowl add any ingredients you wish

dry ranch dressing, finely grated cheese, bacon bits, chives, olives. And keep in refridge up to a week.

I make this a lot it is so easy and you can make it different by the ingredients everytime.

I am not the author I found it handwritten in a article no name author.

Shiitake Mushrom Grow Kit Class at Local Roots Wooster April 16

2011-04-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

We will be having a mushroom grow class and a tasting on April 16 after 12:00. Teri the famous
mushroom chef will be making her sourdough brunch sandwhich that will be featured in the new deli, once it is opened. All samples and the mushroom class are FREE. I will have extra kits for purchase. The kits
are no mess and fuss mushroom kits and they are $20.00 each. You might want to reserve your shiitake grow kit by ordering online at http://www.localrootswooster.com/

We will also go over some of the benefits of mushrooms in your diet.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF OYSTER MUSHROOMS

2011-03-28T14:43:00.000-07:00

Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus Ostreatus) is a fleshy, gilled mushroom growing in shelf-like fashion on wood that is a good food and promising medicinal. Protein quality is nearly equal to animal derived protein. Low fat content is mostly of the good unsaturated kind. Also contained are carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins B1, B2, plus minerals, especially iron and an antioxident. This mushroom shows activity against cancer and high cholesterol. It has shown activity in the following areas: antitumor, immune response, anti-inflammatory, antiviral and antibiotic.

Shiitake Mushrooms for your health

2011-03-22T13:47:00.000-07:00

Medicinal Uses

The medicinal effects of Shiitake Mushrooms have been researched and
it has been found that they do have an anti-tumor effect in laboratory
mice. Part of this is due to the presence of a polysaccharide called
lentinan, which is a D-glucan. These are complex sugars that have an
impact on the overall performance of the immune system.

Extracts from Shiitake mushrooms have also been researched for their
immune system benefits. These benefits range from treatments to severe
allergies to anti-viral effects. There is also evidence that Shiitake
mushrooms have an incredible impact on arthritis. For thrombosis,
Shiitake is commonly used because of a key flavor compound within it
called Lenthionine that allows platelet aggregation.

In addition to the anti-tymor effect, lentinan stimulates the immune
system in order to strengthen its defenses against cancer, fungal
infections, and viruses. There have been clinical trials that state
lentinans can increase the chance of survival of people with stomach
cancer, colon cancer, and breast cancer.

LIONS MANE MUSHROOMS ARE ALMOST READY

2011-02-16T14:51:00.000-08:00

GOOD NEWS!!! Our Lions Mane Mushroom is PINNING!! It will fruit and be ready to harvest in a couple of days. SO STAY TUNED. Lions mane is used to treat dementia and alzheimers. My Father will be my first experiment. We will be selling it to the public and also in kits so you can grow it at home on your kitchen counter with no mess and no fuss like our Shiitake mushrooms.

I am told that FRESH Lions Mane Mushroom taste like LOBSTER! We will find out pretty soon!!

Mushroom Frittata

2011-02-09T12:37:00.000-08:00

http://dejavucook.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/mushroom-and-spinach-frittata/

Very easy and you may use Shiitakes, Oysters or Hen of the Woods would also be VERY GOOD!!

Driving Practice

2011-01-30T17:36:00.000-08:00