Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Milking time

Ahh, the sun is shinning, lambs are baa-ing and its milking time again. As the seasons turn we are blessed with fresh sheep milk, so all can look forward to the return of our favorite sheep cheeses. The first couple of batches of Black Sheep log (ashed) have been made and will be available from this weekend. My next cheese make this week will be Woolamai Mist. Its also nice to have pure sheep yoghurt back in the kitchen fridge too.
The weather has been kind during the first couple of weeks lambing, with cold clear nights but not too much rain. There is good feed ahead of the milking ewes, and since having cattle excluded from the sheep paddocks, there is a lot less mud for the sheep to negotiate than last year.



These colored lambs were born from white parents, but there will be more to come from black mothers. It will be interesting to see if we get any white ones from them. No racism here :)
There have been 3 sets of triplets, and a run of single female lambs. Most of the male lambs have gone to new homes to be reared, which frees up more milk for cheese making. With the herd growing significantly this year, there should be plentiful milk for stocking up all the favorite cheese styles plus expanding the range in the creation of some new cheeses.