Friends and Cheese Curds

Arnold and Ismini visited last week. It had been much too long since we had all been together. We talked and laughed. We hiked at the Lower Suwannee Refuge, strolled all around Cedar Key, had Edie's fantastic crab bisque for brunch at Kona Joe's, walked Jake the noble Golden Retriever through Cemetery Point Park each day, and best of all...made cheese curd!

Random Ferments

In 2010 we started a blog about Cheese and Random Ferments to record new cheese discoveries after The Summer of a Thousand Cheeses went to press. We have found that many other discoveries are fermenting in our heads along with cheese. So we changed the name of the blog to simply Random Ferments. All the posts from the original are merged into this one and along with cheese stories you will find us fermenting other puzzles and stories.

Rest in Peace Sheriff Joe

When we moved to Gainesville we lucked into having great next-door neighbors. The day we signed for the house I would have much rather been in Rochester with my Rooney cousins. My Aunt Pauline had died and we closed for the house on the day of her funeral. I called the florist recommended by the hotel where we were staying, Crevasse's, ordered flowers and told my story. It turned out that I was talking to my new next-door neighbor, Peggy, and we have been friends ever since.

She and her daughter, and her retired Dad lived there. He had served longer than anyone else ever has as our Sheriff. He was a flower enthusiast. My yard and several other neighbors' yards are filled with the day lilies, shrubs and trees he shared. It is so nice to have good neighbors.

He died this week at 96 and the funeral was a Gainesville event. The church was standing room only. The procession of officers cars leading us from the church to the cemetery was too long to count. He lived long and will be well remembered.

Late Christmas Visit

Christmas lasted a whole month this year. Lucky for us! Meg, Pam and James came last weekend to continue our holiday celebration, now that the holidays are over for Meg's Cheese to You customers. We spent a whole day making cheese curds. It would be hard to beat that for fiesta-style entertainment in our family. Hours together in the kitchen, followed by days of feasting on our own handmade cheese.

2 gallons of fresh goat milk

Adding the culture

Checking the recipe

Letting it rest after adding the rennet

Just the right consistency. The slit stays after the spatula is inserted.

Cutting the curds, horizontally, vertically, diagonally.

Separating the curds and whey.

James stirs the curds gently for 45 minutes.

Ready to press by hand

Pam pressing the curds

Russ and Meg drain the curds

Cheddaring the curds

Cut, salted, squeaky as can be, ready to eat!

We also took down the tree, enjoying again at all the mementos we hang every year. And James treated us to dinner at Ichiban...a favorite for all of us. Now we need to start planning birthday visits :)

Early Christmas Visit

We had a great weekend. Pam and James came for an early Christmas celebration. It is very nice to have Christmas start in mid-December and not end until mid-January when the four of us will get together with Meg and Steve. A month of Christmas beats a day!

What did we do? Friday evening we had our traditional Christmas Tamale Dinner, fixed by Russ while the rest of us put up the tree. That was followed by our 2nd Annual Cul-de-Sac Neighbors' Christmas Party. We roasted chestnuts on an open fire pit. Actually, Ralph did all the roasting work...thank you Ralph. The rest of us ate them, and the other goodies we all brought along. It was warm enough for no jackets!

Saturday was rainy and cool, but no problem because the plan was to make pick grapefruit in the backyard and make it into marmalade, then to pickle some okra and green bean. Amazingly, the results of a day of cooking made it back to VA on the plane without breaking.

Sue using a fire log for a foot stool :)

You need this much sugar for 40 half-pints of grapefruit marmalade

Marmalade's done...on to the pickles!

Cat Island Paddle

Finally, last Tuesday, the weather gods smiled and after 4 cancelled attempts we paddled the final of the 12 trails that will be in the Friends Paddling Guide! Not only are we relived to be finished with the research, but it was a fantastic paddle. More photos are here on the Friends of Refuges website.

The Great Suwannee River Cleanup

Russ and I stayed ashore to sign -n the volunteers, and to help weigh and haul away the 1 ton of trash the volunteers brought in at Fowlers Bluff. Then we had a down-home lunch at the Treasure Camp next door to the boat ramp. About half of the 82  Fowlers Bluff volunteers stayed for lunch on the screened porch at the Camp. What a way to spend a December Saturday! More photos are posted here on the Friends website.

Teaching the Camino Courses

Our class at Santa Fe College had 14 students, all of whom are thinking of doing the Camino within a year or so. That meant we had the opportunity to talk about all the nitty-gritty fun stuff that nobody who wasn't planning to go with ever care about. We talked about clothes, walking sticks, backpack features, how much water to carry, first aid, boots, rain, accommodations, trains and buses, scallop shells and pilgrim passports. We had a grant time and they kept coming back for more. They even liked to look at guidebooks and pictures of the trails!

What's Up?

Since the Mercy Reunion we have been happily busy. I attended the Friends Academy sponsored by the US National Wildlife System at the National Conservation Training Center in West Virginia. Here is a link to more photos from the week of intensive networking and learning.

When I got back, we were off to Cedar Key for a couple of weeks of kayaking, Friends activities, and Halloween fun.

Now we are back in Gainesville teaching a mini course at Santa Fe Community Education for folks who are seriously considering walking El Camino.