Cheese Making, Birr Castle, Seven O’Clock Show and Birthdays

Once again, not so much farming in the last week although we did get a clear TB test. When you hear of some farms being almost decimated, it always causes a little bit of anxiety that week.

Blogging is going to be a bit erratic until the book is done and dusted! It’s been an extremely busy couple of weeks too – every week seems to have at least two or three things going on that absorb so much time and the kids’ summer holidays are flying by but it’s all good, lots of fun is being had.

Cheese Making

Last Sunday week, Kate and I visited a cheesemaker as they were holding a cheesemaking demonstration. I love Elizabeth Bradley’s cheese, and it never lasts long in this house. She buys milk from a local dairy farmer and makes raw milk cheese from it. She has 40 goats and 40 sheep and makes her own cheese from them too. The goats cheese is raw but the sheep cheese is pasteurised. I never knew that sheep milked out twice as fast as goats and hence, they have a different milking machine with a different pulsation rate.

I did consider making cheese once for about five minutes and then I realised I’d have to be really exact when making it, really patient, plus I’d have to go to a market every week and talk to, you know, the general public. I don’t mind chatting to people at all but I like when people make quick decisions rather than dither over which cheese to buy or taste lots and not buy any so I don’t think I’d have the patience for it on a weekly basis. I’m looking forward to doing the Ploughing Championships again this year but that’s only three days in a whole year so is perfectly manageable.

It’s surprising how long it takes to make the cheese. It’s certainly not to be taken lightly. We are inspired to try and make our own Mozzarella though. I got a little jar of rennet from Elizabeth and hope to make some before the week is out.

Birr Castle

We always go somewhere on the day of the kids birthdays (and if they are having a party, that happens on another day). It wasn’t beach weather this year, in fact, there was quite a few showers so we went to Birr Castle. It has a nice museum, an impressive telescope and family history, charming tea rooms and lovely walks. We had to race through the formal gardens as it was lashing at that point but it is well worth a visit if you’ve never been there.

Seven O’Clock Show

One of the benefits of having a blog for your business (and while this started out as a personal blog, it now has a business element because of my book) is that researchers and journalists can find you. I received a call from Denice of the Seven O’Clock show wondering if I would like to come on the programme and if I knew of any farmer’s wives that were new to farming when they married. Did I just?! So myself and Ellen O’Neill ended up chatting about what life is like to marry a farmer and yes, my book was mentioned too.

What was funny was I was going to wear a black dress with large green spots (sounds awful but it is nice) but it’s just as well I didn’t as Ellen was wearing a black dress with white spots – they’d have called us the ‘dotty farmers’. You might be able to make out Jedward and the Rose of Tralee from the photos there too.

And another birthday

And to finish off the week, it was my birthday on Sunday so off we went for lunch, then to a bookshop, a little bit of unexpected but successful clothes shopping and finished off with dessert and hot chocolates at the Tea Rooms in Ducketts Grove.

Kate baked me a lovely cake too – I think I’m all birthday caked out now! The book is going fine by the way. My illustrator Joanne is working away on the cover, I’m really pleased with the front cover and she just has a few little amendments to make. Last week, I decided to rewrite 18,000 words from a different angle and it worked out well so at midnight last night, I started to wonder if another section should be revamped too. Let’s just say that the next week will be busy! It’s amazing how a deadline brings clarity of thought! As long as the forecast delivers what it promises, we should be cutting silage on Thursday and bringing it in on Saturday. Note to self – do not give the contractors freshly picked raspberries and strawberries with the icecream for dessert. The icecream goes down fine but there was horror in some eyes as the prospect of fresh fruit.

We have our social media for foodies event this week too. Great speakers, lovely canap?s from Glenisk and very nice goodie bags coming up on Thursday evening.

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