Dashi Day

After battling the elements, as we say, I felt yet another cold coming on. So instead of making some winter type comfort food I needed something warming and healing. I went for something from my childhood. Hawaii has a large Japanese population with saimin (noodle) shops on every corner and Japanese food stores every where. While on delivery to City Market I bought some tofu, udon noodles and shoyu. Shoyu is the Japanese word for soy sauce. I already had some kombu (seaweed) in the pantry. Oh and I forgot......the most beautiful shiitake mushrooms in the produce department. Add to that, some Napa cabbage and it was a healing meal!
To make the dashi, you begin by soaking a sheet of the kombu in water with some dried shiitakes for about 15 mins. Then simmer for another 15 mins. Remove the kombu and shiitakes and replace with cooked and drained udon noodles with accoutrements such as: cubed tofu, chopped Napa cabbage, sliced shiitakes and scallions. A couple of shakes of some sesame and voila! Add salt to taste along with shoyu and hot sauce if you like it hot.

Storm of the Decade

It began snowing on Friday and lasted thru early Monday morning. Burlington Vermont even made the national news with its record breaking totals of 33 inches! Well, on Sat, here on our farm, it was up to 34 and counting. So what Burlington! Our farm is located 1200-1500 above sea level (depending on where you are on the farm) and we also get dumped on with lake effects totals routinely. I did manage to get some beautiful photos although digging out and shoveling and plowing for days on end didn't get erased from my mind as a result of said photos. Please excuse my tongue in cheek, but making cheese and having to dig loads and loads of snow while moving cheeses to the cave, is not my idea of how a decade should make its debut. Last year I recall making Butternut on January 1st, this year began with Paniolo.

To usher in the new year also came a farmer party/gathering we go to. Folks bring whatever dish they wish-since it was so cold and we needed to empty some freezers to allow for new meat we just got back from our butcher, I decided to bring a half-ham that I grilled on the Primo. It was a hoot, as every other family to show up brought a meat dish-this, from a normally very veggie-centric gathering! One farmer brought his own rabbit, and the hosts cooked up a lovely coq au vin-except with a twist. He made coq a la biere. Slow cooked rooster with beer. It was a carnivore's delight for the night!

Willow Hill Farm on Martha Stewart

Big News! We were so lucky to be featured in the November 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Living Magazine as well as being invited to the Martha Stewart live show. The magazine was filled with beautiful photos taken by Christopher Baker. What a great bunch of fun folks who came to interview us and spend time on our farm.......Unfortunately, for me, I had to process our milk into cheese the day the show was being filmed-and so could not attend. I was the only one in the group of cheese makers who could not attend. In attendance were Blue Ledge Farm, Consider Bardwell, Jasper Hill and Thistle Hill. Happily though, for me, I WAS able to catch the show when I went home for lunch as it's aired here at noon on NBC! What a great show. It began by discussing artisan cheese making in Vermont, continued with Liz Thorpe of Murray's Cheese designing a cheese plate, making goat cheese in the kitchen and then in the finale, Allison Hooper of Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery. Allison has written a fabulous new book, In A Cheesemaker's Kitchen filled with oodles of recipes from her relationships with chefs. And don't forget Liz Thorpe's new tale of her life in Cheese Chronicles. Riveting reading and hilarious adventures she had! You'll have to buy it and see. I'll never divulge..........

After its airing Martha Stewart's cheese show was uploaded in its entirety online. You'll need a high speed internet connection. Check it out!

Or cut and paste the line below into your browser:

http://www.marthastewart.com/show/the-martha-stewart-show/the-cheese-show

Vaquero Blue Review on Slashfood

Click here to read a review by Slashfood on our new award-winning Vaquero Blue cheese.

Vermont Fall Means Lamb

I can’t remember the first time I grilled a piece of meat. I must have been in college when the allure of cooking over open flame drew me to buy a tiny Hibachi that sits on the ground. From those early beginnings with charcoal briquets, I moved on to covet the ultimate ‘gas grill’. Years later when I found an abandoned charcoal grill in my garage, I decided to give it a go. I went out to purchase some charcoal, but things had changed since those days in college. There were no longer just briquets, I discovered an array of hardwood charcoal, also known as ‘lump.’ After experimenting with it a bit, I was a convert! I became obsessed with low-n-slow barbecue as well as grilling. Grilling everything from fruit to vegetables, meats, even pizza, it has become my daily method of cooking- spring, summer, fall and even winter.

We got our first official frost here on the farm the other day, and then the very next day, it snowed! Times like this require lamb on the grill, I say. I went in search of a boneless leg of lamb in one of our farm freezers. And there, beneath the pork was a perfect sized leg that just might serve two, I thought. With more light snow predicted- this hill farm is at an elevation- full bodied herbal flavors summon me. A classic, Mediterranean/Greek lamb fits the bill. Redolent of garlic, olive oil and rosemary, its simplicity is what makes this one a gem. This recipe can be sized up to serve more by using a larger leg of lamb. Instructions for both charcoal/gas grills follow.

Boneless Grilled Leg of Lamb
Serves 2-4
Prep time 30-45 mins

Ingredients:
1 Boneless Leg of Lamb (2 ½ -3 lbs)
3 cloves garlic, grated
¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Lemon zest of 2 medium lemons
Lemon juice of 2 medium lemons
Sea salt to taste
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
4, four-inch long sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped

Begin by firing up a charcoal grill with coals placed only on one side of the grill. For gas grills, turn on the gas to all but one of the burners (medium/high heat). Peel the garlic, and then grate it by using a hand held grater or rasp. I find this often quicker than mincing or chopping. Add this to a medium sized bowl. Zest the lemons and squeeze out the juice into the bowl along with the olive oil, salt, pepper and chopped rosemary. Stir all this together and then using your hands coat the entire leg of lamb on both sides with the marinade/mixture. At this point you can reserve this for about an hour to marinate, or grill it right away.




Grill should be approximately 350ºF.

Place the leg of lamb on the grill (laying flat) directly over the flame to sear for about 2-3 minutes on each side. Then move the lamb over to indirect heat. For the charcoal grill, move to the side without coals. For the gas grill, move meat above the burner which is not turned on. Using an instant-read meat thermometer, cook until meat reaches 145ºF for medium-rare. This should take about 25 mins, but make sure to rely on a thermometer, as every grill is different. Take the meat off of the grill and place on a clean sheet and cover loosely with foil to rest for about 10 minutes. It will continue to cook a bit more and the internal juices will come together. Slice on an angle and dig in! Pairs well with Pinot Noir or a fruity Cabernet.


Click here to see Free Press article from my 3rd localvore contribution. Thanks Free Press!

Farmers Market Treats

Well I arrived this morning at farmers market with the bank's clock logging 22 degrees! Yes, that's right. After being there for 17 years, I have never seen it this cold in a fall market. Usually the mornings are in the 40's. Slow to start, it picked up and folks admired my new photos of our pigs listing over like ships in their favorite wallow. One customer asked to buy the poster! I had to laugh as I struggle on my own to market this farm on a shoestring-and that pic was taken with a cell phone. Ah, technology! Small farms typically have neither the funds nor the techno savvy to launch a 'marketing campaign' and thus we all do the best with what we have. Our 'marketing' has morphed over the years from trifold brochures made on my IBM huge computer, to poster board pics mounted on a display, to photo albums, to flyers with at least 5 recipes for the meats I was selling each and every market. Things have changed so much over the years with an ever-changing repertoire of cheese styles and meats-we used to raise the only certified organic grass fed beef for market. And brought recipes for that too. It just became too much. Why this explanation? Due to a lack of a marketing budget, back in 1998, we needed a website. So I took a course and made one. It too had undergone many changes, mistakes, improvements. So when my last hosting package became close to expiration-with my archaic software- I decided to move my site and re-design. Herein, the apologies. Our site www.sheepcheese.com is down as I re-build it. It should be live again in the next few days.

So after market and a longggggggggg shower, I decided to treat myself to some goodies and delve into the website. I bought a Sarabande, made by Dancing Cow Farm, a bottle of Lunetta Prosecco, and a lovely little almond buttercrunch cake from Farmhouse Kitchen for afterwards from the farmers market. Cheese was fantastic, wonderfully meaty flavors married with the subtle sweetness of the prosecco and the cake-well, heavenly.

Vaquero Blue at World Cheese Awards

We are excited to announce that our newly released blended sheep & cow milk blue cheese was garnered a Bronze at the World Cheese Awards in the Canary Islands, last week. With more than 2400 entries, 150 judges and 34 countries having entered, it is an honor to receive an award from this most prestigious organization awarding cheese makers for over two decades.

Vaquero Blue was loosely modeled after a Spanish cheese made by a master cheese maker I met through the folks at VIAC. I discussed my recipe with him in private, as ironically it was very similar-except that it was solely sheep milk at that time- and then tweaked it a bit and made it a blend! Who knew it could award at WCA 2009?! Still a bit under development, what a great start.

This one gets its name to pay homage to the Vaqueros, Spanish cowboys, who migrated to our ranch over 160 years ago. Spanish style cheese. Spanish name. First award in Spain. Hola Vaqueros!

Harried on Hardscrabble

We live on Hardscrabble Road. And believe me, they didn't name this road without reason. It's hardscrabble livin'! The soils are rocky and loamy up here on the hill but with somewhat poor drainage. What basically Mother Nature wants to grow is trees. Our road was paved a few years back and the town put in large and deep ditches on either side to collect the excess water from runoff-after all we are on a hill with lots of brooks coming from every direction. Every so often I see cars off the road in one of those ditches like this summer-and come to think of it, lots in the winter after snow covers the ditch and folks don't remember exactly where it is....... I was heading off the hill to the hardware store and spotted an SUV flipped on its side in one said ditch! Then on Fri afternoon going down to do evening feeding chores, lo and behold, I could not believe my eyes! A school bus in the ditch.



Luckily there were about 4-5 teens on the bus and no one was hurt. I quickly drove up and saw one of our friends' sons standing there. I offered to give him a ride home and he said his mom was on the way. Don't forget the odd times we live in-every single kid was on his/her cell or texting away! They were all sort of chuckling. So later after chores, I heard the rumble up the asphalt of the wrecker (country speak for tow truck) and ran to voyeur that one! This was the biggest wrecker you have ever seen. It took about an hour for them to suck the bus out of the ditch.

Vaquero Blue Cheese Tasting

Last week we were invited to a Mediterranean wine and cheese tasting hosted by VIAC which featured Mediterranean cheeses and some local Vermont cheese as well. Our Vaquero Blue, a sheep and cow blended blue cheese was featured along with Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery's Feta, and Vermont Shepherd's flagship cheese, Vermont Shepherd. The pairing began with an introduction from Jeff Roberts with the goat Feta from VT Butter and Cheese to taste with Shelburne Vineyard's Gewurztraminer. I really like the Gevurztraminer and I am not usually a fan of this varietal as it is normally syrup-y and excessively sweet. This one is light, medium bodied and had almost stone fruit flavors. At the end of the evening, was our blue. Which is typically how one tastes cheeses-the strongest flavor profiled ones are last as they can dampen the palate if eaten early on and confuse the brain for the milder flavors to come. Delli Rex, sommelier, paired the Vaquero Blue with a Tuscan red, La Mozza 2006. Was great! Then she advised those in the audience who had the Shelburne Vineyard Gevurztraminer remaining to try it as well. And then even the Marquette, from Lincoln Peak Vineyard, another Vermont winery. Who knew?! So much wine, so much fun! Check out these Vermont wineries when in Vermont. The Gevurztraminer from Shelburne Vineyard is only available at the vineyard. Time for a drive!

Pastured Pork A-plenty

Well it's officially fall now and I would swear that yesterday there were no leaves dropping and today they fall like a busted open down pillow! Well, when the wind's blowing anyway. Haha! Colors are starting here on the farm and the days have what we call a "fall light." It begins somewhere in late August and all of a sudden about sunset, things look more red, pink and crisp? Did I say crisp-yeah, that's right. I know no other way to express it but the trees look more green or yellow or brown, depending on the species. More crisp-or maybe........more vivid is the term.

Now is also the traditional time to 'put up' foods for the upcoming winter, which by the way Farmer's Almanac predicts this one approaching to be very snowy. When we have a garden, not decimated by said generational woodchuck family, I can,freeze and dry all foods that I am able to-unless I don't get it all harvested. Which happens.....we're all human, right? I am therefore not as constructive as a squirrel, I admit. Imagine if as humans we could just dig holes in the garden and bury our cache-pate, cheese, prime rib? I guess that would lure all critters except the acorn hypnotized.

Anyway...everyone who knows us is aware of the woodchuck debacle of this year's garden. But good news on the horizon is that our pork is ready again! Please feel free to phone 802.893.2963 or email info@sheepcheese.com to find out how to order.