Bring in the cow milk, market offerings and farm happenings
Farm News
There’s a finiteness to a goat’s lactation. Our girls have been putting it out twice a day since early March and based on the yawning bucks in the doe barn, most of the older does must be bred. As their bodies translocate resources to growing babies, their milk production takes a hit. To pick up the slack in the creamery, we have started to bring in jersey cow milk from our friends at Kilgus Farmstead in Fairbury.
Today we made our first mixed milk bloomy rind cheese. So used to the naturally homogenized and lily white goat milk, the lemony yellow cow milk with a thick cream line at the top of the can feels decadent. The curd knife slices through the gel, leaving perfect cubes in its wake. The giggle of the curd as it slides into the molds has confidence. Tomorrow, we’ll remove the molds and set the rounds into the brine tank. Soon, under a cool fine mist, they’ll grow a lovely white fuzz that will become their rind.
PLEASE Support your artisan and farmstead cheese makers #chooseitorloseit The American Artisan cheese community is NOT out of the woods, as COVID-related traumas continue to impact restaurants and food retailers alike.
GIRL AND THE GOATS TO VICTORY CHEESE BOX
As the weather gets cooler and the days shorter, we tend to resort to nesting behavior. Why not settle into your comfy chairs and graze on a lovely (and delicious) VICTORY CHEESE BOX. Just add your favorite wine or beer and you have an instant party for your gustatory senses.
Our current Victory Cheese Box collaboration with grass-fed, raw cows’ milk cheeses from Jacobs & Brichford, bloomy rind cheeses from Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery and accompaniments by Chef Stephanie Izard and her “Girl & the Goat-ceries” team. This DELUXE box features two cheeses from each farmstead creamery, house-made crackers, several kinds of pickles, jam and mixed nuts. It is the ONLY box that features accompaniments made by a Celebrity Chef.
You can get your box through our online store. You can either pick up your box at the farm on Saturdays OR Sundays, 1-4 pm OR you can have it shipped. We just have a few left!
Urbana’s Market at the Square-Only Two Weeks Left to Outside Market
The outdoor market ends on Saturday October 31st. Along with several of our fellow farmers, we are exploring other options to keep our local patrons in cheese and other items. Stay tuned for details. In the meantime, you have access to some of the BEST local food in the Midwest right here in Urbana. The weather for this Saturday will be cool but seasonal. Bundle up and support your farmers!
The Urbana Market has COVID-19 related restrictions. They require social distancing, and both patrons and farmers must wear masks at all times. We have a Square card reader set up for you to swipe your card for payment. If you bring cash, we will give you change (and sanitize our hands between transactions). Gelato pints are ONLY available through online farm store sales/farm pick up.
Here’s the cheese line up for this weekend:
Fresh Chevre $8/each
--plain
--herbs de Provence
--cracked peppercorn
TWO Seasonal chevre flavors of the week:
Roasted Garlic This week, we’re featuring garlic from our long-time veggie friends up the road—Blue Moon Farm. Plentiful this week, so stock up.
Dried tomato chevre It’s that time of year again—dried Juliette and Roma tomatoes from our garden (and sometimes from Blue Moon Farm), chopped up and blended into our chevre. We made a few more for this weekend, but this will be the last weekend for tomato chevre!
We are transitioning from goat milk only to mix-milk bloomies. Grab ‘em while they last!
Little Bloom on the Prairie: our goat milk camembert style round; aging nicely with a slight buttered-mushroom flavor $11/each
Angel Food: our “crottin” style bloomy-petite but loaded with delicious goat tang! Firm enough to cut into wedges$9/each