Mold at work

It has been two weeks since I made Chevre inoculated with the mold that makes the Saint-Maure de Touraine goat's milk cheese.  I have kept it in the basement where it is cold and humid.  I have to turn the cheese every day. The only problem is that the humidity and the temperature do not stay constant and the cheese has dried rather quickly. Also, I was trying to get the basement a bit more humid with a soaked towel.  When I checked the cheese the next day, it had all types of mold on the outside.  So I scrapped the olive, blue and yellowish mold and then washed the cheese with salty water.  I cut a slice the other day and tried it. It has a tangy flavor, nutty and creamy at the same time. I am really excited to try to do it again when it gets colder outside, because then I can put the cheese logs inside our little root cellar.

The fermented, the moldy and the bounty

It is stupendous how you can easily learn a lot from like minded people as you.  I think of this since one of the things that I enjoyed the most this summer was conversing.  In the mornings I would find myself looking at rolling hills under the sunshine while working the soil with others at the farm.  This presented a great opportunity to discuss all kinds of issues, laugh at stories, complain about things, sing in harmony, ask questions and most importantly just listen.  

By way of conversing, I started to ferment cabbage, feed yeast and bacteria with tea, make goat's milk aged cheese and share valuable lessons from the garden.  Talking about how to make things with someone with experience rather than reading it from a book is great.  The following are recipes for what I am making now based on what other people have done.

Sweet start for the harvest season

I was a little late to go into the woods to harvest Chanterelles this year.  However, I still found some in the same spots as last year and I added them to a delicious grilled pizza. Chanterelles grow near the brook by our home, on the ledges that are covered by pine needles mixed in with some birch, maple and beech tree leaves. 

While hunting for the creamy yellow Chanterelles, I was also looking to find a bright orange edible mushroom called The Lobster Mushroom.  To my delight, I found it but it wasn't until I looked up the description and photos, that I harvest it.

 The lobster mushroom is actually a parasitized mushroom.  It is a mushroom that is covered by a fungus that changes its color, texture and flavor.  The host mushroom is a white Russula that is not tasty at all and is white in color, when the fungus attacks it, it deforms it.
I washed it, sliced and dehydrated for a later treat in the year.  Definitely, a treasured pizza topping. Also, this week I canned 6 cups of currant-raspberry jelly from our garden.