It's Easy Being Green

As a home brewer, I think there are some fairly natural progressions into other homemade commodities: wine, mead, fermented foods and cheese. In fact, a lot of home brewing suppliers also carry cheese making supplies, making it even easier to leap from one homemade pursuit to another (much to my wife’s chagrins).

My interest in home cheese making has really peaked now that a  coworker of mine is starting a commercial cheese making operation at her local farm. She’s built an entire dairy and four-room, underground cave to age her cheese in. We’ve even been lucky enough to taste her first test batches and they are delish! I can’t wait for the farm to start selling publicly because there is nothing finer than fresh, local cheese.

Because of my newfound interest in cheese making, I have been reading Homemade Cheese: Recipes for 50 Cheeses from Artisan Cheesemakers by Janet Hurst.  This new guide to cheese making packs 160 pages with full-color photos and recipes of palate-pleasing cheeses you can make in the comfort of your own home, using just a few simple ingredients and tools.

Hurst walks you through the basics of making cheese from beginner recipes like Chèvre and cream cheese on up to more complex recipes like Gruyère. Interplayed throughout the recipes and discussion of cheese making are profiles of dozens of artisan cheese makers who share their passion for fresh artisan cheese.

I would recommend picking up this handy cheese making guide if you’re interested in starting up your own small dairy operation or are looking to start cheese making in your home. With twenty years of cheese making under her own belt, Janet Hurst breaks down the process into a few simple steps that anyone with a little time and patience should be able to follow. Recipes using cow, goat and sheep milk are all included too! I bet the results are well worth it and can’t wait to try my first batch of homemade cheese!

Have you ever wanted to make your own Ricotta for a fresh batch of lasagna? Try Hurst’s recipe below:

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Ingredients:

1 gallon whole cow milk

1/2 cup apple-cider vinegar

1 Tbsp. non-iodized salt

Place milk in a large cooking pot over medium-low heat. Stir often to avoid any scorching. Bring the milk up to 190°F (87.7°C) and remove from heat. Stir and add the vinegar while stirring. Tiny bits of curd will form. Pour the curds into a cheesecloth-lined colander. Drain for about 30 minutes. Add the salt, working it gently into the curds. If you want a creamier texture, stir in 2 or 3 tablespoons of cream. This cheese keeps about a week in the refrigerator. Ricotta can also be sweetened to make a perfect filling for crepes, cannolis or any other desert using a sweet cheese.

Popularity: 7% [?]

I was hoping the new Oral-B ProfessionalCare SmartSeries 5000 with SmartGuide toothbrush might bring some fun back into the routine of brushing, at least for this adult who will always try to recreate the fun experienced with my first pediatric dentist. I’ve always used the standard old brush and have been weary of trying an electric or battery powered toothbrush. Now I think I’ve been converted! Watch my review video in the Featured Video box on the right of this post.

I’ve been using the Oral-B Professional Series SmartCare 5000 with SmartGuide toothbrush for a little more than two weeks and have seen some amazing results. I noticed right away after my first use how much cleaner my teeth felt. They had that slick, polished feeling I’ve only ever felt after an hour or two reclined in the dental chair. The surface staining on this java lovers teeth have been diminished and my gums have felt reenergized.

What intrigues me most about the Oral-B ProfessionalCare SmartSeries 5000 is the wireless SmartGuide that is included. The SmartGuide actually gives you real time feedback on your brushing performance, including how much time you’re spending in each quadrant of your mouth and if you’re pressing too hard on your brush. It does do an amazing job of recapturing that magic you might have felt going to your childhood dentist, gaining the encouragement and reward for good teeth habits!

I would highly recommend the Oral-B ProfessionalCare SmartSeries 5000!

You can also check them out on Facebook and Twitter.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of Oral-B and received a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Popularity: 21% [?]

I’ve heard over the years that the habits of oral hygiene are best set at an early age. Here at the Half-Acre Homestead, we’ve been working hard to get our not quite three year old daughter into the habit of brushing her teeth. She was eager to learn the ins and outs of brushing and still seems to look forward to the task every time she gets the opportunity.

I wish as an adult, brushing my teeth could still be as exciting as it seems to be for our darling daughter. The daily routine of brushing just becomes little more than that. I consider myself to have fairly good oral hygiene habits but am definitely not perfect. I don’t floss every single day and sometimes I only brush once a day. I do love my coffee though and that tends to speed up the rate at which my teeth stain. In fact, the dentist often lectures me on how I need to give up my favorite beverage in order to obtain that perfectly white smile. Too bad it’s not MY top priority in life to have a grill full of polished white Chiclets

I’m hoping the new Oral-B ProfessionalCare SmartSeries 5000 with SmartGuide toothbrush might bring some fun back into the routine of brushing, at least for this adult who will always try to recreate the fun experienced with my first pediatric dentist. I’ve always used the standard old brush and have been weary of trying an electric or battery powered toothbrush.

What intrigues me most about the Oral-B ProfessionalCare SmartSeries 5000 is the wireless SmartGuide that is included. The SmartGuide actually gives you real time feedback on your brushing performance, including how much time you’re spending in each quadrant of your mouth and if you’re pressing too hard on your brush.

Over the next week, I’ll be playing around with the Oral-B ProfessionalCare SmartSeries 5000 and will tell you what I think about it at week’s end. Until then, happy brushing!

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of Oral-B and received a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Popularity: 10% [?]

As you round out your seed orders for the 2012 vegetable garden, have you considered adding any heirloom vegetables or fruits to your shopping list? This year we are making the push to dive even deeper into heirlooms and I encourage every gardener and homesteader to do the same.

Heirlooms are open-pollinated varieties of plants that are often 60 or more years old. Most date back 100 years or more. Heirlooms are the truest plants, often showcasing eyestopping individuality and some of the finest flavors you can get in a fruit or vegetable. Aside from sticking it to large agri-business based seed companies who deal in hybrid or Genitically Modified seeds, heirloom seed can be saved and replanted year after year. You can read more about it here.

If you’d like to learn more about heirloom gardening, you should pick up a copy of a brand new book on the subject. The Beginner’s Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables: The 100 Easiest-to-Grow, Tastiest Vegetables for Your Garden by Marie Iannotti.

If the 250 pages of scintillating photographs of heirlooms don’t have your taste buds watering and your green thumb twitching, I’m not sure what will. Iannotti gracefully shares her 100 favorite heirlooms, treasures that should be kept under lock and key. She also shares the wonderful stories that round out the unique history of each featured heirloom.

Don’t let the title fool you either. This book should also be a prize for any gardener with more advanced skills. I give it two green thumbs up!

Now you can win a copy of the book along with a spectacular heirloom garden prize pack including 35 packets of heirloom seeds and a bareroot tree! Click the link to head to Timber Press and enter The Heirloom Garden Giveaway

What’s your favorite heirloom fruit or vegetable to grow?

Popularity: 12% [?]