Robin's Write Living

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Charlie's Farm

This row of mailbox called the Hoist is the dirt row turnoff for the farm.

Here are a few photos I took during my visit to Sweetwater Farm, although I'd guess many people in these areas call it Charlie's Farm. Charlie Cascio is an amazing man who has lived his days in a few different endeavors. As a young man he trained in the culinary arts and spent ten years in France as a chef. One of those years he spent living with an illiterate goat shepherd living off of the land. He told me he has spent the rest of his life trying to recreate the lifestyle he experienced with that shepherd.

There are seven happy goats who are taken on a long ramble each day through the mountaintops.

As Charlie speaks to a guest, his oldest and dearest goat shows her affection of 16 years together.

This is a little room where he prepares all the cheeses. I missed getting a photo of his Cave where the cheeses are aged.

Outside his little home. I thought it was amazing but he remarked humbly that he was a chef not a builder.

When he returned to the States, he returned to Esalen, a place he was already familiar with. He ran the kitchen at Esalen for over a decade, culminating his time in that roll by writing the Esalen Cookbook. Sometime in the early 80s, he purchased forty acres of land for a very inexpensive price as the land was in rugged, steep terrain and deemed unusable, wasteland.

Wood burning stove in his home...I think I recognize those towels!

Sweetwater Farm is located about an hour from Esalen, north till you cross the Bixby Bridge and then up a valley till you rise above the redwoods into the oak filled ridge tops. His farm is located at 3,000 feet, above the fog that clings to the land below. He has gorgeous views of the ocean as well as nearby Pico Blanco for which he has named one of his cheeses, I think a manchego with peppercorns and a wine brine.

Kitchen tools for a lifetime chef turned farmer

Most of been a tough day of work getting this stove up the mountain!

Charlie's farm is a labor of love. He has never built any roads on his land, everything is done by foot and by hand. Everything on the property was carried there, everything he sells from the land must be carried away. It has been a gradual evolution over several decades, but his farm is a working operation now, supporting him financially and spiritually.

I am in love with this little kitchen!

Charlie has a composting toilet and a sense of humor. Here's a sink planter,

and a toilet planter!

Here's where he wrote the Esalen Cookbook, it's in a yurt.

all the splendid details!

Charlie raises goats and turns there milk into artisanal cheese, he raises honey bees, grows and cures olives, raises chickens for eggs, grows vegetables and fruits mostly for his own consumption, and is waiting on some orchards of apples to come of age to begin production on hard cider. HIs goods are only available at the finest restaurants and boutiques in Carmel, Monterrey and Big Sur. He has about three interns usually living on the farm for six months to a year with the global WWOOF project, here's one such experience.

He currently has 30 chickens and sells ALL the eggs to one restaurant in Carmel at $7.50 a dozen! He's expanding the coop this year to bring it up to 50 chickens, good idea!

The end of his winter garden, we used those cabbages in class for our sauerkraut.

The bees have a great view and lots of yummy wildflowers!

It was a blessing to visit this magical land, thank you Charlie!

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Lady Moonbeam Brownies

Chewey, Flaky, Chocolatey Love

I've been having so much fun taking care of my chickens. They are beautiful and fun to watch. I went out of town for a week, and while I was gone a miracle occurred. My silkie chicken, Lady Moonbeam, began to lay eggs. My family had saved them for me, three perfect eggs about half the size of a jumbo egg and a creamy color. The first day I was home she laid me another. I took those four eggs and made some crazy good brownies. Here's my inspiration, smitten kitchen, I've used this recipe before and they were delicious. For my recipe, I used all organic ingredients and encourage you to!

4 ounces dark chocolate
1/2 cup/1 stick butter
1 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 silkie eggs, or 2 jumbo eggs
1 cup Flour

I melted the chocolate and butter in a double boiler. Off of the heat and before the chocolate had melted completely, I whisked in the sugar, salt and vanilla. I then added the eggs, one at a time. Finally I added the flour. I poured this batter into a smallish pan line with parchment paper and baked for 18 minutes at 375.

These eggs are about half the sizeof jumbos, and a beautiful cream color

Fresh from the oven, organic goodness

My first half dozen home raised eggs, dark brown from my
copper maran, Madame Chocolate, a small creamies frommy silkie, Lady Moonbeam.

The sweet and productive Lady Moonbeam

Honey Bees at Esalen

Here is another story through pictures of my recent stay to Esalen. Words to follow soon, but for now simply enjoy the images.

Cheese Making at Esalen with Charlie

Our finished Crotin Goat Cheese decorated with fresh herbs and flowers.

This is my journey into cheese making with Charlie Cascio at Esalen. The last few years I have been eliminating most of the dairy from my diet. I love dairy, and I do use a fair amount of organic butter in my cooking. Although I eat much less cheese now than in the past I still love to indulge in some goat cheese or the fabulous varieties my sister often brings to family gatherings like Humboldt Fog. So this course exploring cheeses was really the last thing I needed in terms of keeping up the willpower to refrain from dairy...but you gotta live a little! And if you're going to indulge, how about pure, wholesome and handmade!

This is one of Charlie's eight french goats. She lives an idealic life for a goat, foraging among the oaks on the ridgetops of Big Sur at Charlie's Farm. She drinks pure water from a source on her land and her raw milk is transformed into artisanal cheeses and stored in a little cave near her pen. We also used her milk for the cheeses we made during our course as well as raw cow milk from another local dairy, Straus Family Creamery.

Heating the Milk

I had never made any sort of cheese. It is both a simple process and a difficult process. It requires precision, extreme cleanliness and patience. But, the process for all cheese is basically the same and it is in the subtle manipulation of the steps that brings you all the variety you can find in cheese. Our learning process was very interactive. Charlie would take us through a recipe and different volunteers would assist him in the execution. The first step is to sanitize EVERYTHING and be careful of cross contamination throughout. You slowly heat milk to a particular temperature and then add in a starter. You just sprinkle the powders on top and give them a few minutes to rehydrate, then gently mix it in and wait a set amount of time. Next you add the rennet and sometimes at this point other additives like mold starter. There is another waiting period during which the milk solids coagulate into the curd and the liquid separates and forms the whey. When tis separation is complete, you cut the curd with a long knife into small pieces. For soft cheeses, you then pour the curd into forms. For hard cheeses you then cook the curd at a ,ow heat for a set period of time while gently stirring. Hard cheeses are then poured into a mold and a cheese press is used to extract the whey. There is then some tempering, maybe brine or wine or honey, and the cheese is stored, at least six months to develop its flavor.