Sugar Mountain Farm

Pail of Yogurt
We make hundreds of gallons of yogurt at a time in our three 1,000 gallon dairy tanks. The yogurt helps to keep the whey from spoiling, prevents mold and aids in the livestock’s digestion with probiotics – that is to say friendly bacteria. The pigs love it.

The pail above is one I’m about to carry over to a group of weaners in the north home field area. The yogurt is so thick it barely flows through the two inch pipe that crosses under the driveway. On very cold days we risk it freezing inside the pipe near the end so I’m carrying five gallon buckets to them instead.

To make the yogurt we start out with a quart of live culture yogurt and mix it in a clean five gallon pail with some whole milk and the dairy fresh off the truck. The reason for the addition of the whole milk is that often we get whey. Sometimes though we get cream or whole milk for the pigs and then I don’t have to add the milk to start things.

The five gallon pails get cultured in a warm place such as on top of our masonry stove. Once they’ve set we pour the now much larger amount of yogurt into the 1,000 gallon tanks to culture them. If we do that just before the truck arrives with a new load of dairy the in-flowing milk, whey or cream mixes the yogurt we’ve made and then the tank cultures.

Even though the tank is not up at the ideal temperature this still works very well. Time vs Temperature. Once cultured the tanks keep making more yogurt with their every day or other day inflow of fresh dairy. It is almost a self-sustaining continuous flow through process.

Outdoors: 30°F/9°F Partially Sunny
Tiny Cottage: 69°F/66°F

Daily Spark: I’m just killing time before it kills me.

Hope’s House of Cheese
Sometimes we get product from the local cheese makers. It may be out of date or in some cases it is a batch that froze in transit like this one. These small containers are a bit of a bother to deal with but for the high feed value and being free they are worth it. I actually bought our tractor forks specifically to unload one batch like this years ago. A free 40′ long truck full of food was worth the one grand that the forks cost. Since then we’ve been able to unload many other trucks of various things from other food stuffs to seed and more.

Inside the House of Cheese
When I set the pallets down from the truck I arranged them so there was open space between the pallets. Our sons Will and Ben covered the pallets with forms, from the butcher shop construction, and then with a tarp. We added a bit of hay for a floor. This makes a cozy home which Hope is showing off in the picture above. The dogs love going in there too.

Outdoors: 37°F/21°F Mostly Sunny
Tiny Cottage: 68°F/65°F

Daily Spark: Dream small and you will achieve. -Ben

Pear Tree by North Garden
This is a budding pear tree by the north garden. It’s not a recent photo – things are cold and dead right now in the heart of winter. We have no green. Yet, now is the time to think about pruning the trees I have planted and also to think about planting more.

Fruit, nuts, legumes, beets, turnips, kale, rape and other things are great additions to our livestock’s diet. People think of pasture as being grass but really it is much more than that and what it offers varies with the seasons. Clover and alfalfa, both legumes, suck nitrogen out of the air and boost the protein value of the pasture and building the soil without us having to buy fertilizers. Tubers send deep roots down right into the ledge bringing up minerals, water and other nutrients. Nuts are filled with protein and fats. Fruits provide vitamins and sugars. Variety is the spice of life and makes for better tasting meat.

So now when the cold winters months bury the land under a protective coat of white snow I plot and plan where I’ll next plant fruit and nut trees.

Outdoors: 11°F/-16 Sunny
Tiny Cottage: 69°F/67°F

Daily Spark: Fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong. -Old Saying