This is my third attempt at goat milk ice cream. This is chocolate. I don't' care for it. The honey-vanilla and the orange buttermilk were, by far, the best ...but I wanted to try making chocolate. This was done with a very good and expensive chocolate candy bar(3.5 oz) but I think that it needs to have the whole goat milk with more butterfat or added cream in it. I'm not including the recipe until I research this some more. It tasted like a fudge bar only it's very icy and tastes grainy. Even the Prospector, who loves chocolate ice cream is not eating much of it. I will work on it.
The veggie garden is doing great now that we are finally getting some sunshine and warm days. My uncle's zucchini and beans, that he sent me seeds for, are growing well and I think we will have a good crop soon. The 'matos , as my grandson calls them, are forming and the Basil is growing wonderful fat leaves for the Pesto that I will make with it.
That's Freckles in the distance. She's eyeing my fig tree. It's like candy to her. She leans as far as she can, over the fence, and prunes the branches for me so the figs will grow bigger. Oh yes! She has a "leaning" for vegetable gardening. We call her the gardener goat around here....always watching for stray branches and leaves that need harvesting.
"Frecks!! Don't even think about it. Go eat some grass."
And Carl is still trying to figure out what happen, above the chicken coop, the other night. He's such a thinker. Maybe he will figure it out and enlighten us. It's a mystery that boggles the mind.... as things in our lives can sometimes.
The wind is blowing very strong from the north today, but it is a warm wind and very drying. Now the fire worries start. It's the beginning of Summer. It's the time of dry grass and conserving water. The creeks will dry up and all the beautiful grasses and wildflowers will become tinder for a careless cigarette or camp fire.
I don't care for Summer anymore than my Chocolate goat milk ice cream but, as with every season, it will bring something good too. Fresh vegetables and sun ripened tomatoes that I don't have to buy in the store; rides to the river for a picnic and falling asleep on the river beach in the shade; sitting in the river on a rock panning for gold. Finding more than one egg in the chicken house (the hens seem to lay better in the summer), taking an early walk with Annibel and playing with the pupsters on the lawn. Watering the garden early in the morning and watching the bumblebees in the Dahlias. And then there will be the wild blackberries for pies later on.
It's good to have seasons. It's good to live in the moment and be thankful for the day... Sometimes it's hard to find the good things but there is always something.... if you look.
