How Many Cookbooks.....

....do ya need??  In my kitchen, I believe I have last counted close to 300.  Do I use them all?  Actually, yes, at one time or another.  Now my favorites that I turn to most of the time would have to be the Gooseberry Patch collection.  So many to look at, and they are all so cozy! 

The fall collection of the GBP cookbooks are

full of wonderful recipes that are sure to

be comforting and cozy!  Fall & Christmas

cookbooks are among my favorites with GBP.

I also enjoy looking at antique shops and

thrift shops for old cookbooks. The "Recipes

From Old Virgina" is dated 1946, and the "Homemade

Bread, Cake and Pastry" is dated 1937.  I want to get back

up to Riverfront Antique Mall in New Philadelphia, OH and

look for some more sometime soon.

I'm a fan of the Andy Griffith Show, so when I

ran across "Aunt Bee's Delightful Desserts" at the

library, I knew I had to find a copy of this one

to add to my collection, and thanks to Ebay,

I found both "Aunt Bee's Delightful Desserts" and

"Mealtime In Mayberry".

Being the farm wife that I am, I have to add some good old

fashioned farm cookbooks. 

This is the complete collection, for the most part.  Does not include magazines and the small booklets that you can pick up at the checkout counter at the grocery store. 

Amazing, when Al and I were first married, one of my first "meals" I cooked for him was tomato soup (from Campbell's) and grilled cheese.  Now don't get me wrong, that is a wonderful lunch, and we still love it from time to time, especially on a chilly day, but that was just about the extent of my cooking knowledge.  Then I discovered how much I loved to cook, and started out just getting books at the library and jotting down favorite recipes out of those books.  But, one Christmas, our local gift shop had a sale on Gooseberry Patch, and that was the beginning of my cookbook addiction.  After the first 3 books, Cozy Home Cookbook, For Bee's and Me and A Pinch of This, I was determined to collect them all!  And I have almost accomplished that, and have even had a few recipes published. 

With the holidays coming up, I have found that my attention has turned to my cookbooks more frequently.  I've been sitting back more often, and picking out what I should fix for Thanksgiving, and which cookies would be best for Christmas gifts. 

I will try to include some of my favorite holiday recipes in future blog posts! So keep checking in!

My Goodness, It's almost Thanksgiving!

I can't beleive that November is already here! Where did October go? Where did the pretty leaves go already? Our trees are bare. We picked up our turkey for Thanksgiving the other day. Feels nice to already have it tucked in the freezer. Getting some ideas for sides, and wanting , still to get some Christmas goodies lined up. We're making cheese through this month, which we usually don't do. But, we are wanting to get some cheese stocked up to carry us through the winter until we make again in March. And since we've picked up a few new places, we may need this extra cheese.
Received a call about participating in an event in Barnesville, OH at the beginning of December. I will update with more information as it comes. So, if you are in the area, you can stop by!
Emily ended up with a good amount of candy for trick-or-treat last Saturday evening. She found a dinosaur costume at Goodwill about a month ago. We painted her face and got her all dressed up. She was a cute little dinosaur!

Emily all set to go get some candy!

Look at that cute little green face!

Emily's hamster, Princess, passed away this past weekend. Very sad day for us. :( Poor Emily took it hard, so we went to St. Clairsville to the pet store and found another Princess. My only worry is that she was living with a boy hamster, so there is a chance that we may see little ones. A hamster is only pregnant for 16-18 days. I did not know that. We won't have to wait long to see if babies are in our future. Thankfully, the pet store told us if she does have babies, that they will take them off of our hands. We'll deal with that when and if the time comes. Because I'm sure Emily will end up attached to them all.

While we were getting another hamster, we stopped at my favorite store of all time, as if you couldn't tell, Goodwill. I find so many goodies while I'm there. This time, Emily found a roller skate set, Barbie knee/elbow pads with the adjustable skates. She loves them! And she is really very good at staying on her feet. At least much better than I ever was!

Ready to roll!

For those who stop by the River City Farmer's Market in Marietta, our hours will be changed starting this Saturday! We'll be open 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. Longer days for the holiday season! I'll be getting gift baskets ready and have them available at the market and taking orders.

Now, I'm off to get a few things done, I have about 4 batches of cheese that will be waxed tomorrow, plus getting some cut up for the market. Will have to make adjustments on how much I take with me with the longer market day.

An Unsual Slow Day

It's a slow day around here. It shouldn't be, I have a lot of stuff that is needing done. But I am tired! Tired and woke up with a headache, so that just set the mood for the whole day. We made cheese yesterday, and for some reason the day after we make, I get a headache. I think it's because of the stirring we do for so long, and it causes my neck to tense up. So, I rested a bit this morning, got a call from the Sears guy, he came in and worked on the washig machine for the second time this month. Thank goodness it's working. Not willing to pull out a washboard just yet. Had someone recommend a wringer washer, and I'm not going that far yet either. My grandma had one of those. Although I thought they were a lot of fun, especially when grandma would let me put the clothes through the wringer.
We did run to town for a bit, had to pick up some steel fence posts to patch a whole in the fence near our hayfield. Really don't enjoy 65 cows going into the hayfield and woods when it's time to come in for the evening milking. Tomorrow we'll work on that. It didn't help that the deer are so thick on our place, that they just run through our fence like it's nothing. Counted over 50 deer the other night, just in our hayfields. That's just about the number of cows we're milking. So, we have a herd of deer.
Well, the cheese has been shipped to Jungle Jim's this week, so if you stop in there, you just might be able to get some. Got a call from another store/deli in the Cincinnati area, and they are wanting to get some of our cheese in their business. I'm encouraged when they call us just out of the blue. He said that he's had several folks inquiring.
I'm amazed at our yield with our cheese! Rule of thumb is, and this is generally with Holstein milk, 1000 lbs. of milk will make 100 lbs. of cheese. Well, we only had 730 lbs. of milk yesterday, and came out with 110 lbs. of cheese. Good yield!! The milk is almost orange when it comes in, it's so rich right now. Very hard to stir at first, until those curds shrink a bit during cook. Yesterday's batch was "tucked" in for the night around 11:00 p.m. I still have to go up and clean up. Also have about 3-4 batches of cheese to wax. I don't mind doing that, except it seems to take forever to get the wax to melt and be hot enough to do the waxing.
Will need to cut up some cheese for Saturday market. Will have several things to print out so that I can hand out. I want to make sure I get word out that we are doing gift baskets, and let customers know about the gift basket giveaway. Need more business cards too. They seem to go fast.
I'm usually not a winter person, but this year, I am looking forward to some snow days, where we can just tuck in for the day and spend some family time together. I'm getting geared up for Christmas already. But it will be here before we know it. I'm getting recipes lined up for our cookie trays that we give out. May tuck some goodies in my gift baskets as well. First thing I'll probably make is Buckeyes. They freeze nicely, then all you have to do is dip them in chocolate. I got a double boiler last Christmas, and I'm anxious to use it.
Well, I am off to wash up some cheese moulds and wax cheese.
Since trick -or- treating is going on tonight through Saturday night, have a fun, safe trick-or-treating!!

I got an award! Thanks Staci!

Well thank you Staci!
Staci has a really cool blog, over at The Podunkian Post Gazette.
I see that there are questions I have to answer as I pass this award on to 6 of my favorites, so here it goes! Oh, and to make them harder, the answers are to be one word. Hmm....

1. Where is your cell phone? cheesehouse

2. Your hair? ponytail

3. your mother? funny

4. your father? busy

5. Your favorite food? pizza

6. Your dream last night? odd

7. Favorite drink? coffee

8. Your dream/goal? heaven

9. What room are you in? office

10. Your hobby? cooking

11. Your fear? spiders

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? content

13. Where were you last night? home

14. Something you aren't? patient

15. Muffins? blueberry

16. Wish list item? peace

17. Where did you grow up? Ohio

18. Last thing you did? cheese

19. What are you wearing? jeans

20. Your tv? On

21. Your pets? crazy!

22. Friends? wonderful

23. Your life? circus!

24. Your mood? happy

25. Missing someone? grandma

26. Vehicle? van

Now for the bloggers I choose to give this award to!

Jenny Matlock

Jessica at The Sheidegger's

Elizabeth at Loagan Ranch

Amy at Learning to be an Oak Tree

Robyn at Happy House of Haas

Tina at Sunnyflower Days

Gift Basket Giveaway!!

I have put together a HUGE gift basket, full of goodies!!! And on December 1st I will be drawing a name and giving it away!

For every pound of cheese purchased, whether it be an online order, here at the farm, or at the River City Farmer's Market in Marietta, your name will be placed in the drawing. If you buy more than one pound of cheese you get that many chances!

This is for purchases starting November 1 until November 30.

UPS charges do apply to orders that must be shipped.

This is only for our retail customers, wholesale orders do no apply.

Shipping is free on the prize if it is to be shipped. You may also pick it up here at the farm or at the farm market, whichever is convenient at that time.

The gift basket includes (but not limited to, since I'm still seeing some goodies here and there):

*4 lbs. of cheese (this includes one pound of each of our varieties; Jersey Emment, Dixie Swiss, Hill Folk Jersey and Boeren Kaas Gouda)

*Uncle Bunk's Chili Seasoning, this stuff is so good, I can't even make chili anymore without it!!!

*Uncle Bunk's Southwest Sizzle seasoning, YUM!!! (you can visit their site for more good stuff at http://www.unclebunks.com/ )

* Summer Sausage

*Gingerbread Spice tea

*Assorted cocoa's in cute Christmas tins

*Cutting board

*cheese plane

*Gooseberry Patch booklet (http://www.gooseberrypatch.com/)

*2 Christmas scented votives

*2 packages of Dip Mixes

*Christmas bowl with spreader for the dip mixes

*There will also be assorted recipe booklets.

This basket is approximately $100 in value!

See our website for more information about our cheeses and ordering! http://www.buckeyegrovefarmcheese.com/

Bringing in Firewood

We brought in a load of firewood on Wednesday, we only need about 39 more to keep us cozy all winter. It is a lot of work! But, we try to make it enjoyable by being outside and getting some fresh air. I do want to try to pack us a little lunch and something to drink next time. Emily had fun looking for leaves and bugs, and Annie, our little dog had fun running the woods. I am thankful that we have plenty of firewood, even though we did not want to timber our woods, something good has come out of it.
The date on the pictures isn't correct, I need to get that changed on the camera.

Leaves are almost past their peak, but still very pretty!

Emily and Annie exploring.

Almost a full load! Just need to split it once

we get it to the house.

Emily and Annie taking a break on the

tailgate of the truck.

Al working hard at sawing the wood.

Now, beside taking pictures and goofing off, I did load the wood. Emily helped until she tangled with a briar bush, then figured it was more fun to go climb up on some fallen trees with Annie.

Thought about getting more wood today, but it is pouring rain! So, I will clean up the cheese house from yesterdays cheese make (we made Gouda), and cut up cheese for tomorrow's farm market. But, before I do anything else, I'm going to get some coffee going, and take the chill off from the rainy weather outside.

Also, to just put this in, if you are ever in the Fairfield Ohio area (near Cincinnati), stop by Jungle Jim's, they will have some of our cheese next week! :)

Blustery Day!!

We took a fall walk the other day. Enjoyed having a sunny, somewhat warm day to go for our adventure. I took some pictures as we went. Wanted to make sure I captured some of the fall color before the rains and winds knock the leaves down.

Al and Emily walking on our newly made paths through on of our woods.

Emily showing off how strong she is by lifting

a branch.

The red tree in the background is always one

of our first trees to show color. On top of that hill is

one of my favorite places on the farm.


It is cold, rainy and windy. It's the perfect fall day! Well, if you enjoy a day staying in the house, keeping warm and sipping on some Pumpkin Coffee. YUM! Needed to make a batch of cheese today, but we don't like to make if it is so cold in the mornings, and it was in the low 30's here. We need to try to keep that milk fairly warm on the trip up the hill to the cheese house so that we can get the batch started at a reasonable time. It's also a challenge to keep the cheese house warm during the make if it is cold outside.

Today will be my day to work on tidying up the house, doing some laundry, dishes and will sort some toys later. Also working on Christmas cards, I like to get that done early. Then I will need to find a good recipe to include with the cards.

A group from our county extension office stopped by on Monday for a visit. It was a group of 6 folks, but for me, speaking to a group of more than 1 (lol) is a challenge!! I think I managed pretty good, and sounded slightly intelligent! It still amazes me how much I have learned in the past 2 years about making cheese and the science behind it. Yes, it's actually been 2 years since we have officially taken over the business.

I have a customer coming by this afternoon. Not sure of the time, just know it will be before 5. We're very encouraged by the local interest. I thank the owners of our local diner for spreading the word about us. The Beallsville Diner has been wonderful about passing out the Discover Ohio Cheese booklets. So, if you are ever in our neck of the woods, and need a great place to get a bite to eat, that is the place!

Starting November 1st, we will be doing something special for our cheese buyers, keep an eye on here, or our website www.buckeyegrovefarmcheese.com or on our page at Facebook. We'll post complete details. This will be something for all of our retail customers that buy online, at the farm or at the farm market.

Now I'm off to go get something put together for our lunch. I'm going with a perfect comfort food lunch! Will post a recipe for it later today!

Keep warm and dry today!