Chanterelle Mushrooms

 

These gorgeous and delicious mushrooms have popped up on my property again this year. I will be bringing some to the market on Saturday and want to let y'all know what they are before you get there. 

They are considered an "excellent edible mushroom" and I couldn't agree more. We have been picking and enjoying them for a few years now.  

 

The chanterelle is very easy to identify.  The false chanterelle and jack-o-lantern may be confused with a chanterelle because of their orange color, but both of these species have true gills. They also have a more traditional mushroom cap shape instead of the vase shape of the chanterelle.

Chanterelle noodle stir fry is one of my favorite easy dinners. Check out the recipe here.

You can also follow the Mushroom Club of Georgia on Facebook for more information.

A Whole Lotta Crying Going On

Yesterday I came out for morning milking to be greeted by the smiling faces of my three little doelings out with the general population. Either the dog or the does managed to unlatch the gate to to girls' pen and free the prisoners. A gallon of milk- gone. 

I'd been meaning to get the girls moved all week but needed to put a little work into their shelter first as we had a chance of showers all week and I wanted them a bit more protected from the elements. 

While I was having another bang-up morning at the farmers market, my sweet hubby worked on their shelter. 

I moved them when I got home. Let me tell you, they are not happy about it! Kat and Buttercup are telling for their girls, and the girls are crying for their mamas. 

Kat's baby, Dagny, is only 8 weeks old, so I plan of giving her a bottle each day for a another week or so (even though she's already as big as 12 week Opal), but she was having none of that last night. Lulu, Buttercup's daughter, kept attacking me with muddy little hooves as I tried to get Dagny to drink. Lulu is crazy.

I have DHI testing this week, so want these mamas to stop holding up so I can have a better month than last month. May wasn't good at all. We had new goats show up here so they were all out of sorts. 

This is Kat after milking this morning. I know what her udder looks like when it's empty and this is not it. I'm tired of fighting with her for every drop.

I dropped a whole chunk of chaffhaye on this milking stand. Looks like a mess.

Silver Linings

God has a bigger plan for us. The last couple of weeks have been so rough, I was starting to question whether He was trying to tell me that I needed to quit doing this. I've been praying about it constantly.

Last Wednesday, the Auburn University Dairy Group came out to the farm. I was nervous and excited at the same time and honestly felt like I was about to get a colonoscopy.

They brought 2 vets and 6 students. It was such an amazing experience! All the goats got a thorough exam and they thought all my animals seemed really healthy. They took milk samples from all my does- I'll get results this week. The May DHI results came in last week and everything looks good there too.

They ran diagnostics on all my equipment and it's all in good working order. In fact, everything looked so good they asked if I would be willing to host the "Small Ruminants" class every winter as part of their curriculum! Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that my little farm would be part of the curriculum of a large university!

It was reaffirming to hear that I'm doing things right and it goes to show that God has bigger plans for us than we can imagine.