Lemon Honey Cheesecake with a Twist of Mint and a milking machine.

Merry Christmas, John said as he carried two huge boxes through the kitchen door.  I checked the calender, yes,  still January. The milking machine had arrived.  Much excitement. If Daisy the cow could have seen us staring at the bewildering collection of bits and pieces with knobs and switches, all gleaming and solid looking, she would have been swinging her head in dismay.  I quite literally stood in the middle of the living area, the floor strewn with packaging materials, and boxes, the instructions clutched firmly in my sticky little hands, saying what is that bit, how do you think this works.  Oo that is nice and shiny!

Later John had it assembled and the pump running smoothly and seemed to be making sense of it.  Thankfully it is his job to get the wretched thing installed and keep it running. It will be my job to approach that enormous and probably reluctant cow with the contraptions, her eyes no doubt rolling in horror and not get murdered by flying hooves for my troubles.  What I will do to get a bucket of raw milk.

John grew up on a wee farm that had pigs and played Bob Dylan while working on cars. I grew up on a beach with a dog and visited farms in the school holidays.  Neither of us has milked a cow. That is OK, we will work it out. I believe that most things can be solved using common sense. Given, of course, that we Have the  sense we were born with.

This morning we  have awoken to the finest drop of gentle rain. The stock water barrels are filling again and I can almost hear the grass growing. Just the tiniest tease of January growth.  I have decided that every day that it is above freezing, the brassica seedlings  can go out in the sun.  It will slow them down and once March rolls around they will be hardy and raring to go.  We will carry them back inside in the evenings.  We do this each year. This year we are about three weeks ahead of ourselves but we cannot lose anything and we might gain a crop. At the end of Feb everything is re-sown anyway. This wave is like an advance guard. A bonus.

On a wee sustainable property like this you cannot grow too much food. Everything is consumed one way or another. February will get cold though. It has to happen.

Yesterday I made the cheesecake using the last of the lemon curd. I called it:

Lemon Honey Cheesecake with a Twist of Mint!

For the base:I combined one cup of finely smashed cookie crumbs, 1 cup of finely chopped walnuts and slightly more that 4 oz of melted butter. Mix and press into a springform cake tin.

Sprinkle with finely sliced mint leaves.  Roll the leaves in your hands a little first, to release their fragrance. I chose to spread the mint on the base so it would infuse the cake with mint very subtly.  (I grow a mint plant in an enormous pot specifically for winter picking, at the end of summer it comes in and  sits in a south window with the potted Rosemary.)  Now allow the crust to wait quietly in the fridge while you assemble the filling.

The filling:

• 2 packs of cream cheese. (500 grams) I had to buy the cream cheese as the milking is over until the spring, same with the yoghurt.  So yes, I cheated and bought both these items at the local store.  But when we are milking (fingers crossed) this cheesecake could be made with mostly home grown ingredients.
• 1 1/2 cups lemon curd (I make the lemon curd quite tart.)
• 3 eggs ( at least these were home grown)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened yoghurt
• 1 cup honey (from my bees)
• 1 tablespoon of cornflour (cornstarch)
• a touch of vanilla (though my vanilla is about two months from being ready)

Beat this up. Pour into shell. Cook at 325 for 1 1/4 hours. Cool on a rack. Loosen the crust and cool again.

Do not cut until quite chilled.  Preferably wait overnight. This is a rule I had to ignore as the light was so lovely for the photograph!  But this morning I just ate a slice for breakfast (as you do) and it cut perfectly and the base did not crumble.

I surprised myself with this one as I am not a dessert maker. Nor am I a dessert eater. I do prefer to finish a meal on a savoury note. But this is tangy, not too sweet but rich.  And very good.  Now I am going to just gobble up the last slice, before the world awakes. Because I am like that. Sometimes I just am the Little Red Hen.

Good morning. We have another nice mild, cloudy, damp day just breaking.  No cold weather worries today.

Good morning!

c

oops John just came in from his run to report that the drizzle has turned to freezing rain and the lane is a sheet of ice. Hmm I had better get to work.

PS If you would like to read a well balanced article on coyotes  (there was rather lively discussion on this subject yesterday in my commnents) this is a very intelligent piece of writing on the subject.

The Collie Farm Blog.