Whey Out!

Spring is certainly here, and what to do with all the farm fresh milk and extra or unproductive chickens? You make cheese and soup of course. I have a friend who got a little more creative than your average farmwife....

My very Martha-Stuart-like buddy, Joni McCarty made cheese last week and hated the thought of wasting the lovely whey, so she made soup with it! That's right... I asked her for the recipe, and of course she didn't have one. But, here's what she did, and I'll pass it on to you. Here's what she wrote on my facebook page when I asked her about it:

"No recipe. Just desperate to use all that beautiful whey. Instead of broth, I just used whey. Here's a rough recipe: Boil a whole chicken in about 1 gallon of whey. When chicken is cooked, cool and de-bone. Strain the whey/broth through cheesecloth and into another soup pot. Add veggies, homemade noodles, and chicken meat. Plus salt, sage, pepper to taste. Simmer until veggies are tender and noodles are cooked. There ya' go! Be sure to serve with fresh homemade bread! ;-)"

Mmmm...sounds good, huh? Try it!I also use whey instead of milk or water in my bread recipes. You can sweeten whey and add lemon juice to make a healthy protein-rich "lemonade". You can also use whey to ferment veggies and make kraut.

Tonight my twin doe goat kids are 2 weeks old and went into a stall in the barn without their mamma for the first time. A little traumatic for mamma and babies, but they will  soon get used used to it. Tomorrow I milk again! Yay. I get the morning milk and the babies get to nurse the whole rest of the day. Finally! Delicous, creamy goat milk in my morning decaf coffee. I am a happy and blessed woman.

Here's an old picture! Ben milking Clair. Wow- that was about 6 years ago.