If I had to come back in another life, I would want to return as one of Liza and William's goats. Specifically, I want to be a descendant of Polly, one of the four original goats and lead goat, who passes down the trait of freckled ears! They would feed me special treats like roasted peanuts throughout the day, set out buckets of hot water to drink and pet me all day long! For now, however, I am quite happy as a human being able to visit Ripshin Goat Dairy and hang out with Liza and her family. The cheese business is quite the family affair at Ripshin. William does the milkin’ and farm maintenance, Rachel, Liza’s daughter does the cheese makin’ and Liza does the sellin’ at all the farmer’s markets, not to mention all the spoilin’!
We walked out the back door and down the path toward the goats. The whole herd of Saanens were excited to see Liza as she cooed and cawed upon approach. Just as we arrived, Liza's niece and husband, William, had just started the evening milking.
Two by two they milked the entire herd, luring them out for the milking room with roasted peanuts (their favorite treat). After milking these very loved pets look forward to a drink of steaming hot water. It’s like high tea—goat style!…almost. Across from the milking room is the cheese making room where cheesemaker
Rachel does her magic. Inside was the day’s production; bags of fresh goat curd hung draining in cloths to create the perfect moisture level.
We walked back outside to say hello to the odorous and excited bucks. It is breeding season after all. Now that I think about it, Darren wears a similar smelling cologne called New
Buck! Pewf! We watched as the boys paraded up and down the fence trying to attract the flirting ladies!
Ripshin Goat Dairy sits amongst 500 acres of beautiful wooded North Carolina family land on which many other family members are scattered including Liza’s daughter Rachel and husband Serkan, her son Jesse and his wife Amy and her sister’s family.
We had a little bit of time until dinner still so we hopped into Liza’s car for a surprise excursion and drove across the street and up a dirt road and parked. From there walked down a dirt path to where Liza’s son raises his heirloom Tamworth pigs. These adorable red piggys will end up being some of the most delicious whey fed pork you will ever eat. As we supplied them their daily whey we heard “pop pop pop” not too far away. It is black powder season in North Carolina.
Liza had another treat in store for us--a sturgeon farm nearby still within the limits of her land! Can you say CAVIAR? Liza’s late brother developed a project farming sturgeon with the support of a state university. We got to sneak a peek in at these prehistoric looking fish in the pitch dark and we used our handy dandy cell phones to light up the pools of fish. The first tank contained the smaller sturgeon which were only about a foot long. As we moved down the row of corrugated steel tanks the fish got bigger, and bigger and bigger! The biggest ones looked like they were about 5 feet. At six years old these “little” fishies terrified me. I had to jump back from the pool several times in fear that they would jump out and bite me.
Back at the farm we settled in to our digs and then we gathered around the kitchen island for none other than our absolute most favorite delicious perfect never-get-old-even-after-two-weeks-of-having-it-straight cheese and wine. Liza put out some of their fresh cherve that Rachel had just made and we cracked open a bottle of Metz Gewürztraminer. With our dinner Liza shared with us a bottle of local chardonnay. Not too shabby North Carolina! And if we thought that the tender, rich salmon and buttery, rustic Colcannon couldn’t be matched, we were wrong because for dessert the freshly baked brownies topped with homemade citrus frozen yogurt was to die for. Our ice cream maker at home will again see the light of day for that recipe. And we definitely can’t keep this one to our selves so here it is:
2 3/4 cup of fresh raw cow's milk yogurt
1/4 cup of half and half
1/2 cup of lemon juice
zest of 1 or 2 lemons
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp vanilla
And use a seriously old school ice cream maker for best results!
On full, glorious bellies we slept like whey fed piglets. The next morning we leisurely packed our bags and packed up the car. Our exceedingly gracious host sent us on our way well prepared with a comforting breakfast of local granola, fresh goats milk and hot steaming coffee and tea. She packed us with a wheel of goats milk camembert for aging and bid us adieu. William keep on milkin’, Rachel keep on makin’ and Liza keep on sellin’ and we’ll keep on eatin’!
No comments:
Post a Comment